


Sprout Prompt Fills

by Trumpeteer34



Series: Sprout 'verse [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce Feels, Childhood, Deaf Clint Barton, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Prompt Fill, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Tony Stark Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 18:11:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 26,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3946639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trumpeteer34/pseuds/Trumpeteer34
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Each chapter is a fill based off of my multi-chapter fic <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1002715/chapters/1986072">Sprout</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: Sprout prompt: Tony and Baby Brucie are both sick with the flu together!**

“This is the worst,” Tony groaned after he swallowed the medicine Pepper had given him. His throat felt like sandpaper, and he took another sip of his drink. “Like, the _worst.”_

“You act like you’ve never been sick before,” Pepper replied, but she rested her palm against his feverish brow. Her fingers lightly brushed away some hair from his forehead.

“I don’t get sick,” Tony told her as he took one last sip of his room-temperature ginger ale. He set the cup on the nightstand next to the bed and sniffled.

“Well, you’re sick now,” Pepper responded, “so just get some rest.”

Tony groaned again as he laid back down, but any response he had was interrupted.

_“Miss Potts,”_ JARVIS began, _“I believe young Bruce is running a fever.”_

Tony immediately propped himself back onto his elbows and shut his eyes against the wave of dizziness and nausea. “J, Bruce always runs hot,” he said once he was sure he wasn’t about to feel that pill he had just taken come back up.

_“I’m aware, sir,”_ the AI replied, _“but his temperature has spiked well above his average.”_

Pepper put a hand just above the arc reactor and nudged until Tony lay back down. “Is he awake?” she asked JARVIS without looking away from her bedridden boyfriend.

_“He is dozing rather fitfully, ma’am,”_ JARVIS answered.

“He can’t get sick,” Tony said to the air.

“And you don’t get sick, yet here we are.” She gave his chest a soft pat as she stood up. “Let me go check on him. _Please_ try to sleep.”

“ ‘m not tired,” Tony grumbled as he watched her retreating back. She gave him a small smile as she pulled the door shut, leaving him alone on his sickbed.

Tony was determined to stay awake until she returned, but he realized he had nodded off for an indeterminate amount of time when he awoke with a congested snort that launched him into a coughing fit. He pulled the covers over his mouth until he could breathe again.

He opened his eyes when a cool hand brushed against his cheek. Pepper was looking down at him, concern on his face. “Bruce?” he asked, the name coming out half a croak and half a groan.

“He’s definitely sick,” Pepper explained. “Fever, coughing, throwing up, the works.” She carded her fingers through his hair again, and he had to struggle to keep his eyes open. “I’ve set him up out in the living room, since his sheets need to be laundered.”

The implications of that made Tony wince. “Is he okay?”

Pepper sighed a little. “He’s a bit miserable right now,” she admitted. “I think he was expecting me to be angry that he accidentally threw up in bed. I think he could use some company right now, and he doesn’t want to get me sick.”

Tony looked at her. “You’re gonna let me out of bed?” he asked with a smirk. The whole image was destroyed when he coughed into his fist, and he leaned back with a groan.

“Misery loves company,” she replied, this cheerful sound that broke through the fever and aches and chills.

“Misery loves _miserable_ company,” Tony corrected her, but he forced himself to sit up and push back the covers.

Pepper pulled the comforter off of the mattress and wrapped it around Tony’s shoulders until he felt a bit like a child playing dress up with Thor’s cape. “Then you’ll certainly do in keeping Bruce’s company,” Pepper rejoined with quiet amusement.

Tony grumbled, but he let himself be led to the living room.

He hadn’t thought he could feel worse, but when he spotted the little boy curled up into a pitiful little ball on the sofa, an ache that had nothing to do with his bout of the flu settled in his chest. Bruce had his SHIELD blanket wrapped snugly around his body, but even from where Tony was standing, he could see the shivers wracking the child.

Without needing to be prompted to move any further, Tony stepped around the sofa and all but collapsed next to Bruce. “Hey bud,” he croaked. “How’re you feeling?”

Bruce didn’t move for a long moment, but finally, he peeked around the edge of his blanket. He looked completely exhausted, and just by looking at him, Tony could tell he had a perilously high fever.

“Bad,” Bruce admitted a second later in a tiny, miserable voice. “I threw up.”

“I heard,” Tony replied. He shook off the comforter from one of his arms so he could set his hand upon the boy’s shivering body. “Want to watch something? We can be sick together.”

There was a brief pause of silence, and then Bruce carefully pushed himself up. He paused momentarily and closed his eyes as his pallor went even whiter than it had been. Tony reached down for the trash bin that had been placed in front of the sofa and handed it over in time for the little boy to be sick.

As Tony started rubbing reassuring circles against the kid’s back, Pepper circled the sofa to the other side and sat down next to Bruce. When he was finished vomiting, Pepper carefully took the trash bin and held up a small glass of water with a straw.

“Take a sip and swish it around in your mouth, sweetheart,” Pepper instructed gently, “to get that taste out of your mouth.”

Bruce did as he was told and spat out the water with the rest of his sick. “I’m sorry,” he whispered pitifully.

“Everyone gets sick now and then,” Tony replied. He let his hand continue to rub soothing circles against his back.

Pepper gave him a look. “Not an hour ago, you said you don’t get sick.”

“I’ve been wrong before,” Tony admitted as he let himself slump back against the sofa. “It doesn’t happen _often,_ but it’s been known to happen once or twice.”

“ _Just_ once or twice?” Pepper teased fondly as she brushed some of Bruce’s hair from his fevered brow.

Tony meant to make a long-suffering noise, but it only triggered another coughing fit. He twisted his head to cough into his elbow and away from them, which only made the room start spinning. He pulled his hand away from Bruce’s back so he wouldn’t jostle the already nauseous boy.

After a few more full-bodied coughs, Tony flopped back against the sofa with another groan. “Pepper, this is the _worst,”_ he said, and even he had to describe it as a whine.

A small hand slipped into his, and when Tony forced his eyes back open, he found Bruce looking up at him. Their eyes met, and Bruce managed this tiny smile.

“We can watch something,” the little boy said softly.

Tony smiled back.

With Pepper’s help, the two of them got settled on the sofa together under the comforter around Tony. Bruce curled up against Tony’s side and already dozing off as Tony settled back against the cushions behind him.

Pepper smoothed out the blankets over both of them before she let her hand gently brush through Tony’s hair. “I’m going to get you both something to drink,” she said softly so as not to disturb the drowsy child. “Please try to go back to sleep.”

“I’m still not sleepy,” Tony protested, forcing himself to open his eyes to look at her again.

But Pepper only smiled and pressed a soft kiss against his burning forehead. She carefully got up to go grab them some more ginger ale or water.

By the time she got back, only a few minutes later, both Tony and Bruce were fast asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **shoesoffbootson requested: Birthday party. Even if it’s not his birthday, Tony and Pepper give him one because they know he must not have had one as a kid the first time around. But anything you write in the Sprout-verse, I’ll love!**

The end of the year was fast approaching. Thanksgiving with the team had gone off (surprisingly) without a hitch, and before Tony knew it, they were inching their way to the middle of December. With Christmas looming around the corner—the first Christmas in which a child he loved would be involved in—he was fairly preoccupied.

It wasn’t until he was on a mission with the other Avengers that he realized there was another celebration that came before Christmas. He had been scouting ahead when his sensors picked up something fluttering in the wind. When he looked, he saw it was a bright red balloon that someone must have accidentally let go. He watched the balloon ascend toward the heavens, and then it hit him.

Bruce’s birthday was December 18th.

The little boy would be turning five in just six short days.

==

It was snowing when Tony lightly knocked on the door to Bruce’s room the morning of the 18th. When he pushed open the door, he found the little boy sitting on the window ledge, looking out at the city as the snowflakes made their tranquil descent from the sky.

“Good morning,” Tony greeted the child with a bright smile.

Bruce looked away from the city and gave Tony a smile in return. “Good morning,” he said. There wasn’t anything expectant or anticipatory about his expression, as Tony wished there was.

The little boy hadn’t said anything about his upcoming birthday. He clearly didn’t expect anything, be it presents or just an acknowledgement, and that broke Tony’s heart to pieces. The boy’s birthdays back with his mother must have been quiet affairs, if they were affairs at all.

Tony was determined to ensure that didn’t happen this year.

He leaned against the doorframe. “Ready for breakfast?” he asked.

Bruce nodded and slid down from the window ledge.

They ate together in the penthouse kitchen, watching the snow and chatting amicably with one another. Bruce wasn’t acting any different, and Tony could tell that he wasn’t at all distressed that there had been no acknowledgement of his birthday. It hurt him deeply to think that a child this young could already think so little of such a special day.

As Bruce disappeared to go brush his teeth after breakfast, Tony smiled to himself.

A few minutes later, Bruce returned to the kitchen. Tony was just finishing up the dishes from their meal, and he grinned as the boy walked into the room. “So, I was thinking we could go downstairs for a bit, if you’d like.”

“Okay,” Bruce replied. “Do you have to work in the lab today?”

“No,” Tony answered, easily biting down a smile. He looked off toward the doorway leading to the living room. “There’s a box on the coffee table in there. Could you grab it?”

Bruce nodded and once he had left the room, Tony allowed himself to smile.

He was slow to wipe his hands dry and pour himself a second cup of coffee before he walked into the next room.

He found Bruce exactly as he knew he would find him: standing next to the sofa and staring at the wrapped gift on the coffee table. There was surprise etched across his features and he was watching the box like he thought it was going to either disappear or jump off the table and attack him.

The little boy glanced up at him when Tony came to a stop next to him. He looked confused. “Is…?”

“That’s the box,” Tony confirmed with a warm smile. He lightly ruffled the boy’s hair before he turned to the elevator. “Go on; grab it.”

Without turning around, he knew that Bruce was watching his retreating figure, but he heard the slide of the box across the table and the soft little patter of footsteps as Bruce rushed to catch up. The elevator doors closed behind them and, without being prompted, JARVIS began to lower the elevator to the desired floor.

While taking a sip of his coffee, Tony stole a look down at Bruce. The little boy was silent and clearly still a bit confused. He was eyeing the gift in his hands curiously, but made no move to open it.

Tony waited until the elevator had slowed to a stop—the doors remained closed—before he smiled down at the child. “Go on and open it,” he said softly with encouragement.

Bruce glanced up at him for a moment before he carefully pulled the brightly colored wrapping paper from the box. He peeked back up at Tony, who only smiled encouragingly again, and finally lifted the box’s lid.

The little gasp of surprise made Tony grin. He watched the boy pull the new pair of swimming trunks out of the tissue-paper lined box. These were different shades of purple and blue. Bruce had grown maybe two inches since he had been changed earlier in the year, just enough for the swimming trunks he had worn in Malibu to have gotten a little small.

“Do you like them?” Tony asked quietly, still watching Bruce.

Bruce tore his eyes away from his gift and he looked up at Tony. He still looked very clearly surprised, but as he watched, happiness and gratitude began to mix into his expression. A delighted smile crossed his face. “I love them! I… Thank you! I can wear them in the summer!”

“Well, you _could,”_ Tony granted with a growing smile. “Or you could wear them today.”

And before Bruce could respond, the elevator doors opened on the floor with the indoor pool.

The first thing Tony noticed were the balloons dotted around the area: brightly colored orbs hovering festively in the air. A _Happy Birthday!_ banner was hanging from the ceiling. On one of the pool-side tables was a small pile of gifts.

And standing around the pool were the Avengers.

“Happy birthday, Bruce!” several different voices cheered once the elevator doors had opened fully. It seemed that everyone had made it, and everyone was dressed down. In place of the armor and uniforms were t-shirts and swimsuits. All of them were staring at the pair in the elevator.

Bruce stared straight back at them, at a complete loss for words. It looked like he had no idea how to react; Tony wondered if the child thought he was dreaming. Tony watched as the little boy stared out at the scene in shock.

Finally, Bruce glanced away from the room beyond the elevator doors and peered up at Tony. It took a moment for him to find his voice, but when he did, it was this tiny, questioning sound that made Tony ache. “Is…” Bruce began softly, peeking back over at the rest of their friends before he looked back up at Tony. “…is this all for me?” he asked.

The disbelief and confusion broke Tony’s heart, but he still smiled. “Happy birthday, buddy,” he said quietly.

Bruce stared at him for a moment longer before that disbelief swiftly turned into delight.

==

Later, when Tony was watching Thor, Natasha, Steve, Clint, and Bruce play some sort of game in the pool, Pepper sat down next to him on the side and let her feet dip into the water. His arm easily slipped around her waist and they leaned into each other, both of them content to just watch the madness in the water.

“Pool party a week before Christmas,” Pepper mused out loud.

Tony smiled and let his feet kick a little under the water. “Pretty awesome birthday party, huh?” he asked.

“It’s snowing outside,” Pepper replied with amusement in her voice, but he knew she wasn’t complaining. After all, she had been with him 100% in getting this planned. He knew he had her to thank for getting the room decorated.

Their conversation was interrupted when Thor let out a triumphant laugh. “Victors again!” he declared. He lifted Bruce easily out of the water, which made the boy laugh with delight. As Thor got Bruce settled on his shoulders piggy-back style, the Asgardian clapped Steve on the back in comradery.

Clint groaned good-naturedly and made grabby motions toward Bruce, who had hardly stopped smiling since he had stepped out of the elevator a few hours ago. “That’s ‘cause you’ve had Bruce on your team the past three rounds. It’s time for him to team up with Tasha and me.”

As they all got into a mock argument that had Bruce giggling, Pepper wrapped her arm around Tony’s back. When Tony glanced over at her, he found her watching the five of them in the pool with this serene expression on her face.

“Maybe next year,” she began softly, “he’ll have friends his own age to invite to his birthday party.”

The thought made Tony smile. He glanced back at the little boy, who had been transferred to Natasha’s shoulders as the next round of their game began. Bruce looked right at home playing with all of them, but Pepper had a point.

And who knew? Maybe by that time next year, Bruce would have friends from school that he could play with. The thought of Bruce actually interacting with other children—like a kid ought to—made him smile.

He gave Pepper a light squeeze. “Maybe,” he agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: Maybe a few short scenes in which Bruce did not change back to being an adult and he was adopted by Tony and Pepper? Please? As much as I love your story a HUGE (and I mean Hulk HUGE) part of me wished Bruce could have stayed little, and had a second childhood as Tony and Pepper's son.**

“I’m sure it went fine,” Pepper murmured soothingly, and Tony glanced over at her. She was leaning back in the passenger seat beside him, completely composed and watching him. When their eyes met, she reached over and caught one of his hands to give it a light, reassuring squeeze.

Tony looked back at the building they were parked in front of. “He really didn’t want to go,” he replied. 

“He needs this, Tony,” Pepper reminded him. 

“I know,” Tony answered with a sigh. “I know. He can’t just keep hanging out with adults all the time, since…since Dr. Banner isn’t come back.” It still hurt him to think about, but he always made sure Bruce never witnessed it. The little boy was already carrying enough guilt over what had happened; he didn’t need any more.

“He needs friends his own age,” Pepper said softly, “and this is the first step.”

_This_ being preschool. 

They had both agreed that Bruce probably could have gone straight into school, but at the tender age of four and nearly three quarters, he not only would have been the youngest, but he was guaranteed to be the smallest. Intellectually, Bruce was ready for elementary school, but socially? He had a lot to learn. 

Before Tony could reply, the bell at the top of the little preschool began to ring, signaling it was noon and time for the kids to be picked up. They watched several parents exit their vehicles and enter the building, but neither of them moved until some of the parents began to come back out with their children.

Pepper gave his hand another reassuring squeeze before she let go to open her car door. Tony followed suit.

Hand-in-hand, they walked up the steps and into the building. There were a few employees standing behind the counter to sign everyone in and out of the preschool. One of the workers walked them back to the classroom, and Tony swallowed before they walked inside.

The room was perhaps the most colorful room he had ever seen. There were arts and crafts on nearly every wall, and tiny little round tables took a portion of the room. The other half of the space was devoted to toys, books, and other forms of entertainment.

Settled on the rug with a book was Bruce, and settled next to him sharing the book was a little girl. The book was spread across both of their laps, and it looked like the girl was reading the book out loud, judging by how her finger was trailing across the words. Bruce was just listening, though he popped in once or twice to help with a word. 

The employee walked over and knelt down next to the pair of kids on the rug. A moment later, Bruce looked up and an enormous smile crossed his face. He said something to the little girl and she nodded and carefully pulled the book completely into her lap so Bruce could get up. 

Quick as a flash, Bruce was across the room. Both Pepper and Tony knelt down so the three of them could share an embrace.

“Have a good day, sweetheart?” Pepper asked as she pressed a kiss against the crown of the boy’s head.

Bruce nodded and pulled back enough to look at her. “I think…I think I made a _friend,”_ he admitted in a whisper, like speaking it any louder would somehow shatter his friendship. 

As the child twisted around to wave goodbye to the little girl on the rug, who enthusiastically waved back, Tony met Pepper’s eyes. She had a warm smile on her face, but Tony could see the relief in her eyes. She had been just as worried about Bruce fitting in as he had been. 

Tony smiled and lightly jostled the boy. “What’s your friend’s name?” he asked.

“Ashley,” Bruce replied as he grinned back up at Tony. 

The three of them embraced one more time before Tony lightly kissed the kid’s forehead. “I’m so glad you had a good day,” he murmured softly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
>  
> 
> **Anonymous requested: Clint teaching little!Bruce about his hearing aids/ sign language!**

“It figures they go out when Stark’s out of town,” Clint grumbled. Resting on the table in front of him were his hearing aids—his _nonfunctional_ hearing aids. They hadn’t even been acting up. Yesterday they worked just fine, but when he put them in this morning—nothing. No static, no screeching, nothing. They wouldn’t even turn on, and Clint’s old pair was with his belongings at SHIELD.

At least Tony and Pepper were due back from their business trip tomorrow afternoon. He could make it a day without his aids. 

He sighed and reached for his cup of coffee, and nearly jumped out of his skin when something touched him. 

Clint whipped around just as Bruce took a quick step back, instantly pulling his arm away and back around his stuffed rhino. The boy’s eyes were wide with concern. 

After a moment of staring at one another, Clint watched the boy’s mouth move. “Are you okay?” Bruce asked.

Clint smiled. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he replied. “I’m sorry for startling you.”

“Me too,” Bruce said in what Clint could imagine was his normal quiet voice. The child looked a little confused. “I thought you had heard me.”

The archer felt his smile turn a bit rueful. “Yeah, about that…” he began. As Bruce’s confusion turned into wariness, Clint picked up one of his hearing aids and showed the boy. “I’m not sure what happened, but my hearing aids decided to crap out on me this morning.”

“You wear hearing aids?” Bruce asked, and Clint could almost hear the surprise in his voice. The boy looked from the device in the archer’s hands to Clint’s face. “I’ve never seen you wear them.”

“The way these fit,” Clint began as he started to put them on, “almost makes them invisible. If you don’t know to look for them, you basically don’t see ‘em. See?” He twisted his head this way and that to show the child how they sat. “They’re good for my line of work, especially if I’m undercover. SHIELD designed them, and Tony made them better.”

“And they’re not working today?” Bruce asked.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with them,” Clint admitted as he pulled the aid off. He gave it a disgruntled look before he set it back down next to its equally nonfunctional twin. “I’ll ask Tony to look at them when he gets back tomorrow.”

When he looked back at Bruce, he saw the boy was watching him closely. “Is there something I can do to help?” Bruce asked.

Clint felt himself smile involuntarily. “As long as you keep your mouth clear so I can read your lips, we should be fine,” he replied. When Bruce nodded, Clint grinned and reached over to ruffle the kid’s hair. He couldn’t hear the adorable little giggle, but the smile that crossed Bruce’s face was enough. “Let’s get breakfast started.”

They worked together in making French toast, which was what they normally made when they got to spend a morning together. Bruce didn’t need guidance anymore, but they still enjoyed working beside one another. Clint let the boy do most of the cooking while he chopped up some fruit to go with their meal.

Once they were finished, Clint carried their plates over to the table. They both got their drinks and sat down, where Clint began to cut the boy’s food into more manageable bites. As Clint slid the plate over to Bruce, he saw that the boy was looking off and was nibbling on his lip. He realized Bruce was looking at his broken hearing aids.

“Did you try to ask me something just then?” Clint asked, drawing Bruce’s eyes away from the hearing aids. When guilt touched the boy’s features, Clint reached over and lightly grasped the kid’s shoulder. “It’s okay, little man,” he said. “Next time, just tap me or something so I know you’re trying to communicate with me.”

“I’m sorry,” Bruce apologized. His eyes went back to the hearing aids. “I’ve never met a deaf person before.” 

“Except for me,” Clint replied with a reassuring grin. “You have nothing to apologize for. I usually have my aids in, but I can read lip well enough when I know someone’s trying to talk to me.”

Bruce glanced back at him, and when Clint grinned again, a hesitant smile made its way to the boy’s lips. 

They dug into their breakfast without further ado. They didn’t chat, but from the glances Clint stole of the kid, he knew that Bruce was rolling everything he had learned that morning around in his head. 

As he was pouring more syrup onto his French toast, he saw Bruce hesitantly reach toward his arm. Clint looked over, and Bruce’s hand froze in midair. His eyes widened slightly under the archer’s attention, but he relaxed when Clint smiled.

“What’s up, little guy?” he asked as he set down the bottle of syrup.

“Um…” Bruce trailed off as he drew his hand back toward his chest. His fingers fiddled with each other a little anxiously, but Clint waited patiently for the boy to organize his thoughts. “How… How long have you been deaf?” the boy asked.

“Pretty much my whole life,” Clint replied with a casual shrug, glancing briefly away to spear a piece of strawberry onto his fork. “It certainly made my time as a carnie interesting.”

“So do you know sign language?” Bruce asked, looking curious.

Clint grinned and set down the fork. “I sure do,” he answered, signing his response as he spoke. 

It made his smile widen to see Bruce’s eyes light up. 

“Can you teach me?” Bruce inquired, and Clint was a bit taken back to see how eager the little boy looked. It really shouldn’t have surprised him, considering the boy’s insatiable thirst for knowledge, but to have it applied to something so…so _personal_ to Clint made something in his chest warm up. It was touching, how eager Bruce was.

Clint felt another smile cross his face. “I will definitely teach you,” he answered, and that warmth in his chest spread when Bruce’s face lit up.

==

“Home sweet home,” Tony said as the elevator doors opened on the penthouse level. He and Pepper stepped out of the elevator and into the living room.

“No massive pillow fort,” Pepper mused as she looked around. It seemed pretty par for the course that when Clint babysat, their living room got transformed into a fort of epic proportions. 

As they started setting their bags down, they heard a giggle from the kitchen. Tony immediately felt himself smile at the sound. Their hands joined together, and they walked toward the kitchen.

Before Tony or Pepper could offer a greeting however, they paused in the doorway and took in the scene in their surprise.

Sitting at the table were Bruce and Clint. It looked like they had finished their lunch, as their empty dishes were pushed back. They were chatting in low voices, but what surprised them both was that they were signing back and forth to one another. 

The little boy’s hand movements were stilted and unpracticed, and when he got stuck, he spelled out the word, and then Clint would guide him through the proper gestures. Bruce would sign the word again, and with Clint’s nod of approval, the kid would beam before they continued on.

It was not what Tony was expecting to see this afternoon, but the sight made him smile. 

The pair’s conversation was cut short when Bruce glanced over and saw him and Pepper standing in the doorway. “You’re back!” he exclaimed, happiness instantly taking over his face. As he slid down from his chair, Clint twisted in his chair and glanced to the doorway, grinning when he spotted the couple. 

“We’re back,” Tony confirmed as he knelt down to accept Bruce’s embrace. “Did you have fun with Clint?”

Bruce nodded against Tony’s neck. “He’s been teaching me sign language,” he disclosed.

“I saw,” Tony replied with another smile. He let Bruce go so he could hug Pepper, and Tony’s eyes went to Clint. He found this peaceful little smile on the archer’s face that Tony only ever saw when he was interacting with little Bruce. 

“I take it you broke your hearing aids?” Tony asked as he got up from his crouch and walked over to the kitchen table.

“I didn’t break them,” Clint replied as he twisted back around to pick up said broken hearing aids. He held them out for Tony to look at. “They just stopped working between two nights ago and yesterday morning.”

Tony took the hearing aids and gave them a quick once-over before the archer’s words really sunk it. “Wait, so you’ve only been without them since yesterday morning?” he asked. When Clint nodded, Tony glanced over toward where Pepper was showing Bruce some of the pictures they had taken on their plane ride home. 

“He’s picking up on it quick,” Clint said before Tony could even voice his thoughts. When Tony peered back down, he saw the archer watching Bruce with a note of fondness on his face. “He’s doing really well.”

If Tony didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that he heard something like quiet surprise in Clint’s voice. He poked the archer so he would look back up at him. “Well, this is Bruce,” he pointed out quietly once Clint’s eyes were on his lips. “He’s always been able to soak up languages like a sponge.”

A smile touched Clint’s lips, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’d be surprised by how few people are willing to learn sign language when I can just wear my hearing aids,” he replied. 

Tony stared down at the other man for a moment, his words tumbling around in his mind. 

Before he could think of a reply, Bruce came rushing back over. “Clint!” he said as his hands landed on the archer’s knees. Once Clint’s eyes were back on the boy, Bruce grinned wide. “They flew over a thunderstorm,” he said slowly as his hands worked out the proper movements. He faltered over the last word.

Clint must have read his lips, for he grinned. He raised both of his hands toward eye level, his hands closed except for his index fingers. “Thunderstorm,” Clint repeated as his hands signed what must have been the word. His index fingers zig-zagged in a downward motion.

Bruce mimicked the gesture, and when Clint nodded in approval, Bruce did it again. “Thunderstorm,” he said again with a smile. “They flew over a thunderstorm,” he repeated, his hands signing the words as he said them.

Clint grinned and reached over to ruffle the kid’s hair, making the boy giggle. “Very good,” the archer praised, and Tony could see how touched he was that Bruce was completely serious about learning.

It made him smile.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Khitkhats requested: I loved Sprout so much! ( in fact I'm in the middle of rereading it) one of my favorite things about it is the bittersweet ending so my prompt is: what if Bruce is unable to change back so Tony and Pepper have to raise him until he grows up?**

When Bruce was four and a half, they realized Dr. Banner wasn’t coming back.

It was a tough time for everyone, but little Bruce especially. The child was nearly inconsolable in his guilt that he had taken the place of a close friend. It was only through sheer determination by everyone involved that they got the little boy smiling and laughing again, and feeling like he had an important part in their circle—their family.

There were several nights in which JARVIS informed Tony and Pepper that the boy had had another nightmare and was in need of comfort, comfort Bruce felt he didn’t deserve. There were several nights that the three of them shared a bed, despite Bruce’s protests that they didn’t have to do so even as he sank into their shared embrace and clung to them. 

By the time Bruce was five, he was officially adopted by Tony and Pepper. Nick Fury had been surprisingly helpful in getting all of the paperwork handled, since it all had to be forged. SHIELD had ensured everything would be taken care of, and the adoption process went about as smoothly as it possibly could. 

Bruce was five the first time he and Tony planned a special Mother’s Day gift for Pepper, and he was still five the first time Tony had been surprised on Father’s Day with something he and Pepper had planned together. 

Bruce was six when he asked if they could go see his Momma’s gravesite. The request came in the wake of an awful nightmare that had nearly triggered a Hulk transformation, and Tony didn’t have the heart to tell him no.

So after doing a little bit of research, the three of them boarded a plane and went to Ohio. They stayed with him as Bruce visited the headstone of Rebecca Banner, and they held him as he broke down, unable to keep back the flood of tears. 

The little boy was silent for the rest of the brief trip, but once they were back in the air and on their way back to New York, he carefully took a hold of each of their hands. “Thank you,” he whispered.

He nearly broke down again when Pepper and Tony drew him into another embrace.

When Bruce was seven, they sat him down on the sofa in the living rom. “Is everything okay?” Bruce asked, casting worried glances between the two adults sitting on the couch with him. “Did I…?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, bud,” Tony immediately reassured him. “We just have something we need to tell you.” He and Pepper traded a brief look and Tony had to fight the urge to smile.

Pepper looked back at Bruce and didn’t bother to hide her smile. “By March next year, you’re going to be a big brother.”

Bruce’s eyes went wide in surprise and he looked at Pepper’s still-flat stomach. “You’re having a baby?” he asked in quiet wonder.

“Yes,” Pepper answered, and Tony caught her hand and gave it a squeeze. It was something they had been talking about more and more, and now that it was finally happening, _really_ happening, Tony felt equally terrified and excited. They wanted to make sure Bruce knew early on to fully prepare him. They had done their reading about children’s reactions to new siblings being brought into the picture, and with Bruce’s insecurities, they wanted to address it as early as possible.

But instead of seeing rejection or concern appear on the boy’s face, Bruce beamed. “Do you know if it’ll be a baby boy or a baby girl?” he asked eagerly.

“We won’t know for a few more weeks,” Pepper answered, and she was smiling. “We probably won’t know until September.”

“A new baby means some pretty big changes,” Tony began, still looking at Bruce, “but we want you to know that we’re going to do this together, as a family. We still love you, and nothing’s gonna change that.”

Bruce smiled brightly, and then the three of them were embracing again. 

By the time Bruce was eight, he finally got the chance to be a big brother. It was like he was born for the role, and Tony had to wonder if this was how eager Bruce had taken the mantle when he had gone to live with his aunt and cousin all those years ago. He took to it naturally, and was always so eager to help with anything he could assist with. 

Tony would walk into the nursery and find Bruce entertaining his new precious baby sister, and after ensuring he had captured the moment on his phone, he would just watch the two interact, feeling like his chest could burst from all the love inside him.

If this was what it meant to have a family, even a non-traditional one like theirs, he would have dropped everything to have it sooner. There was no greater feeling.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
>  
> 
> **Anonymous requested: What exactly became of the drawings and other things Bruce made when he was little? I'd love a piece exploring this please!**

Tony didn’t dream about what had happened often. After those first few months, he didn’t even think about it all that often. 

But when his subconscious decided to remind him of that brief period of time, it sent an ache through his chest and he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep. A melancholy would follow him throughout the day, a yearning for what was lost.

It was getting close to six in the morning, and Tony had been down in the lab for three hours already. He had worked through four cups of coffee and had gotten very little done. Instead, he had been reminiscing over everything that had happened in that six week period those months ago. 

He was turning the little stained glass bowl the little boy and Natasha had made when he heard the lab doors slide open. Tony jumped and whirled around, and he froze when Bruce walked in.

Bruce paused when he saw the startled look on the engineer’s face. “JARVIS mentioned you’ve been down here for a while,” he said, like he needed to explain his sudden appearance. “Is everything…” 

He trailed off when he saw the object in Tony’s hands, and Tony bit back a curse. There was no sense in hiding the little bowl now, nor the sketch book that was sitting on the lab table in front of him. 

The silence was almost oppressive, but when Tony heard footsteps, he glanced up from the bowl he was fiddling with in time to watch Bruce carefully sit down on the stool next to him. He had slipped his glasses on at some point, and his eyes were locked on the sketch pad that had served as his dream journal during the time he had been transformed into a child.

Bruce didn’t say anything, but when his eyes went back to the bowl Tony was holding, a smile touched his features. “You still have yours?” he asked.

“Of course,” Tony replied. “I love it. It’s perfect for holding spare bits of wire or screws.” 

Another smile crossed Bruce’s face and he reached carefully over and let one of his fingers run along the edge of the bowl. “I still have the one Natasha made for me,” he admitted, and Tony glanced over at him in surprise, but Bruce was still looking down at the handiwork his four year old self had done months ago. “And Pepper still has hers on her desk in the office.”

“Did you not expect us to keep them?” Tony asked, still watching his friend.

Bruce shrugged and pulled his hand away from the bowl. His eyes went to the dream journal on the desk before them. He stared at it for a moment without making any movements. “I take it you had a dream about…about what had happened?” he asked after another lingering silence.

Tony felt himself sigh and he let his fingers begin to fiddle with the bowl again even as his eyes went to the dream journal. “Yeah,” he admitted, because he couldn’t very well deny it. “It’s just…I had never thought I’d actually… _want_ that kind of life…being a father, raising some kids…having a family.”

Another silence swept over them, and Tony exhaled again. “I miss it.”

Bruce didn’t reply for a long moment. He was either waiting for Tony to continue putting his thoughts and feelings into words, or he was ruminating over everything. Wordlessly, the physicist reached forward and opened the journal. 

The journal was upside down and backwards, so instead of opening up to the boy’s drawings of his dreams, the page was covered in a child’s doodles of Tony and Pepper. Tony felt his throat tighten with emotion at the sight of the lovingly done drawings, but Bruce simply looked over the drawings.

“Have you and Pepper discussed it?” Bruce asked, breaking his silence at last. He didn’t look away from the drawings. “Discussed starting a family?”

“We have,” Tony answered faintly. “I mean, we _have,_ but…”

“…but you don’t want to wait,” Bruce filled in knowingly.

A soft huff of laughter escaped from Tony. “I never realized what I was missing,” he admitted. “I…I _want_ it. I want that kind of life.” 

“It’s not too late, you know,” Bruce replied. He tore his eyes away from the doodles and gazed over at his friend. “I know better than anyone that you both will be amazing parents someday. There’s…” He paused and glanced back at the drawings in the book. “There is no shortage of love between the two of you. That kid will never have to wonder.”

Tony felt himself smile involuntarily, and before he could stop himself, he reached over and pulled Bruce into a one-armed embrace. Bruce let him, and they stayed like that for a long few minutes, settled into a peaceful silence as they browsed through the rest of the drawings Tony had kept all this time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Elfiestrinkets requested: Any chance you could write Tony and Pepper getting pregnant / having the baby or something? Bruce could be godfather or something.**

“So, when are you due?” Bruce asked quietly, and when his question was met with silence, he looked up from his menu.

It had been Tony’s decision to tell Bruce before the rest of the team, and Pepper had agreed. She had picked the restaurant, Tony had invited Bruce along for lunch, and—

Well.

Pepper turned and shot a narrow-eyed look at Tony, who immediately dropped his menu and raised his hands defensively. “I didn’t say a word,” he instantly promised, “I swear.”

“You haven’t stopped smiling in the past two weeks,” Bruce pointed out with a small smile, which grew when he turned his warm brown eyes to meet Pepper’s. “He didn’t say anything,” he reassured her.

Pepper felt herself smile and she carefully set her own menu down. “April,” she answered. “Middle of April.”

Bruce’s smile grew even warmer. “Congratulations,” he said, and that single word was filled to the brim with sincerity. “I know you both are going to make wonderful parents.”

She felt something inside her chest warm at his statement, and next to her, a soft smile touched Tony’s features. It had been almost a year since Bruce had been changed into a child and they had inadvertently stepped in as acting parents. Before that had happened, Pepper was never able to imagine her boyfriend as a father figure, but she was gladly mistaken. Tony had taken to the fatherly role more easily than he had taken to flying around in a metal suit. 

She knew he was ready to become a father, and Pepper was more than ready to become a mother. 

==

“You know I could have just hired some people to do this,” Tony’s voice came from within the room at the end of the hall. 

“You’re the one who said it needed _a personal touch,”_ Bruce’s voice followed, soft amusement in his words.

Pepper had been in the middle of slipping off her shoes when she heard their voices coming from the hallway. She paused and listened, letting one of her hands rest unconsciously on her growing middle, but they had fallen silent. 

Curiosity got the better of her, and she stepped as quietly as she could down the hall. Sure enough, the door at the end of the hallway was cracked and sunlight streamed through the small space between the door and the jamb. There was crinkling sound coming from within the room, like something plastic, and Pepper pushed open the door.

The furniture in the room had been moved away from the walls and covered in plastic sheeting. Sheets of plastic lined the entirety of the floor, but Pepper found herself focusing on the walls of the room.

Walls that had been white that morning.

The walls were now a soft green, like a spring morning. It was such a gentle color, not the garish pinks or oppressive blues she had seen in countless baby catalogs, and it was just soothing. 

And standing in the center of the room, armed with paint rollers, were Tony and Bruce.

They had both froze when she had pushed the door open and were now staring at her, like they had been caught doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. There were splotches of the green paint on their clothes and an actual handprint on Bruce’s shoulder. There was a smudge of paint along Bruce’s chin, and somehow Tony had gotten some in his hair. 

Pepper stared back at them for a moment before she looked around the room again. She leaned against the doorframe and let her hand rest against her belly again. Her chest felt tight with emotions that she couldn’t blame completely on the hormones rushing through her veins, and she felt herself tear up slightly.

Another beat of silence passed before Tony actually tossed his paint roller at Bruce. The other man managed to catch it, but not without getting more paint on himself, but Tony had already started approaching Pepper.

“Well, we were going to surprise you,” he began conversationally as he stepped closer, wiping his hands on his jeans to remove any wet paint that might have been there. 

Pepper looked away from where a patch of sunlight was hitting the green paint and looked at Tony. “Did you start this just today?” she asked softly.

“Yeah,” Tony answered. He twisted around to look at the progress he and Bruce had made and nodded his approval. As he turned back to her, he wiped his hands one last time on his pants. “If you don’t like the color, we can find something else. We’ve just been going through so many colors, and pink’s offensive, blue’s overdone, yellow’s too bright, purple’s too—”

Pepper silenced him with a kiss. He immediately stopped talking and kissed her back, and one of his hands landed gently on her pregnant belly. 

It was a lingering kiss, and when Pepper pulled back, he chased her lips. She treated him to another, briefer kiss. “I love it,” she whispered against his mouth. “It’s perfect.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: Please I'd love a scene that features an extended conversation between little Bruce and JARVIS!**

JARVIS monitored the room as Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts exited and pulled the door nearly shut, leaving the changed Dr. Banner alone within. It had certainly been a peculiar situation when Mr. Stark had arrived back from a call for the Avengers to assemble with the child in tow, and the longer JARVIS monitored the child, the more the AI became concerned.

Young Dr. Banner stared at the closed door for a long moment, still fiddling with the toothbrush Ms. Potts had given him. The smile had quickly fallen from his face, and a general melancholy settled over his features as it had each time the child found himself alone. 

The boy prepared for bed, moving carefully through the new space.

When the child began to search for a light switch, JARVIS spoke up. _“I can get the lights for you, sir.”_

The changed Dr. Banner glanced toward the ceiling, not in the direction of JARVIS’s sensors, and smiled his gratitude.

JARVIS waited until the child was settled under the covers before letting the lights begin to fade. _“Sleep well, young sir.”_

The boy didn’t reply, and was soon fast asleep.

==

The boy didn’t speak at all, whether he was alone or with Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts. JARVIS became more and more convinced that there was something tragic in Dr. Banner’s past that led to this kind of behavior from the child. 

On the boy’s third night under the care of Mr. Stark, he began to whimper in his sleep. JARVIS considered awakening Mr. Stark to alert him of the child’s distress, but he was not certain that Dr. Banner would be comfortable with receiving comfort. Instead, he did an instantaneous internet search and looked to see if there were proper ways to wake a child from a nightmare. 

The child startled awake with a sharp gasp, stared up into the darkness of the room for a single moment, and dissolved into quiet tears. JARVIS watched, helpless, as the child curled into a ball under the covers.

_“Sir?”_ JARVIS began quietly, and the boy flinched. _“Are you alright?”_

The boy didn’t reply, and JARVIS fell silent.

==

“…JARVIS?” 

It had been an eventful day. They finally had the confirmation that Hulk still resided within the boy’s body, and more than that, JARVIS’s suspicions were confirmed. Dr. Banner had been abused as a child, likely by his father. There were no records that JARVIS had on hand to verify this, as the only records that seemed to exist nowadays were under lock and key by a few government agencies, SHIELD included. JARVIS wasn’t planning to find that information on his own, though he had a feeling that Mr. Stark would look for those files fairly soon.

It was almost three in the morning. The boy and Mr. Stark had just chatted in the kitchen for the first time. Mr. Stark had walked the young doctor back to the guest suite, where they shared a long embrace and goodnights. 

The boy was in bed now, and JARVIS was dimming the lights to encourage him to go back to sleep, but he paused when the child spoke directly to him for the first time.

_“Yes sir?”_ the AI replied.

The child hesitated for a moment. “Do… Do you like it here? In the future?”

The boy believed he had been brought to the future, which would perhaps make more sense to a child than the actual truth. Mr. Stark had let the boy believe he was in the future, so JARVIS followed that example. _“Though your future is my present, I have enjoyed my time with Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts,”_ the AI replied.

Young Dr. Banner smiled a little sleepily at the response. “I like them, too,” he admitted in a tiny voice. As he started to crawl under his covers, he went on quietly, though his voice took on an element of confusion. “They’re being so nice to me. I…I don’t know why.”

_“They care for you,”_ JARVIS said.

“But they don’t know me,” the child pointed out, glancing up at the ceiling as he normally did when the AI spoke. “I…I’ve barely talked to Tony, and I haven’t even talked to Pepper.”

_“That may be true,”_ JARVIS permitted, _“but they have spent four days in your company, and you in theirs. You all have shared meals together and played games together. And though this is the first time we’ve spoken to one another, I care for you.”_

“You do?” young Dr. Banner asked, his brow furrowing a little in his confusion.

_“I do not like to see you frightened or upset or in pain,”_ the AI answered. _“I know Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts feel the same way. We all care for you and want to see you happy.”_

For a long moment, neither of them said anything. JARVIS watched the boy stare up at the ceiling for a lingering moment before he looked down in contemplation. JARVIS had to wonder how rare it was for the child to hear that he was cared for, or that there were people who wanted him to be happy. 

Finally, a little smile appeared across the child’s face. His eyes returned to a random point in the ceiling. “Goodnight, JARVIS,” he said softly, but the words were tinted with quiet gratitude.

_“Sleep tight, young sir,”_ JARVIS replied as the lights dimmed completely. Before long, the child was fast asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Atimelordswife requested: For the Sprout Prompts, dear goodness, I'm so excited. Here's a prompt... Uhm, like grownup!Bruce waking up from a nightmare, and JARVIS still alerts Tony, and Tony goes into check on him like he did with little!Bruce... Or something along those lines. I'm just so interested in the disconnect with Bruce and Tony now that Bruce is back to normal.**

_“Sir.”_

Tony shot awake with a snort, and next to him, Pepper burrowed a little deeper into their blankets and fell back into a deep sleep. He stared up at the ceiling, trying to remember his dream, but it was lost to him.

_“Sir,”_ JARVIS said again, and Tony focused on his voice, _“Dr. Banner just awoke from a rather dreadful nightmare. Heartrate is—”_

Bruce had woken up from another terrible nightmare. Tony instantly slid out of bed without rousing Pepper and rubbed at his eyes, still feeling half asleep. All that mattered at the moment, though, was that Bruce was probably curled up in a miserable ball in bed, crying to himself in the wake of a horrible dream/memory. The little boy might even be in the bathroom, if the dream was grisly enough to have made him nauseous. 

Tony marched down the hall toward the spare bedroom, but he frowned when he didn’t see the light coming from the cracked door. He could always see the purple hue from the nightlight. He blinked at the peculiar sight, trying to wake up. “J, where is he?” he asked.

_“He is downstairs, sir,”_ JARVIS replied.

And suddenly, Tony remembered that Bruce was no longer a four year old. He had been returned to his adult self a few weeks ago, and was no longer down the hall from Tony’s room. He was back on his own floor, like he had been before he had been transformed into a little boy. 

Tony stood there in the darkened hallway, frozen. He was tempted to go back to bed, but…

With a fortifying breath, Tony turned and went to the elevator. JARVIS took him down to the right floor without needing any instruction, and when the doors opened, Tony wandered out into the darkened suite. He knew the floorplan, so he knew the exact path to take to get to the bedroom.

When he got to the door, though, he paused. He could hear shaky breathing coming from the room beyond the door, but he had no idea how Bruce would feel if he came barging in when he was feeling vulnerable.

But then one of the shaky breaths broke into something that sounded almost like a sob, and Tony felt his chest immediately tighten and his heart break. 

Without wasting another moment, Tony opened the door.

The room was dimly lit, but there was just enough light for Tony to find the man sitting up in bed. Bruce was nearly folded over his blanket-tangled legs, curled tightly in on himself. One of his hands was covering his eyes and part of his face while the other grasped his wrist in a bruising grip. There were tremors running through him, and his chest heaved with each shuddering breath and barely-contained sob that threatened to escape.

Tony only had a second to take all of that in before Bruce’s head whipped in his direction. His hand was pulled from his eyes and instead rested over his nose and mouth. Bright green eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness of the room immediately found Tony standing in the open doorway, and the first emotion Tony was able to identify on his friend’s face was _panic._

It looked too much like the times Tony had been roused by his AI when the little boy down the hall had been plagued with nightmares. There was the panic, the shame, the absolute _terror,_ but more than anything else, there was the need for comfort.

Bruce managed a shaky _‘what…?’_ as Tony crossed the room, but any further words that might have wanted to escape fell silent as Tony sat on the edge of the bed and let his hand rest upon one of Bruce’s blanket covered knees. There were tear tracks on Bruce’s cheeks, and Tony felt the ache in his chest settle deeper.

Tony watched as Bruce’s haunted gaze went downward to that hand, still trying to reign himself in and steady his breathing, looking beyond troubled. But then Bruce’s bright green eyes met Tony’s.

They moved in unison. As Bruce’s face crumbled, Tony reached over. As Tony’s arms wrapped around his friend’s trembling body, Bruce slumped forward. As Bruce buried his face against Tony’s shoulder, Tony let one of his hands begin to rub soothing circles against the man’s back. It was _exactly_ as Tony remembered, only instead of holding a four year old, he held the man he had become.

The air was silent around them aside from Bruce’s shuddering breaths and the sound of Tony’s palm moving over the damp fabric against Bruce’s back. They held one another for a long time, until Bruce’s breathing began to even out and the tremors had turned into a mild tremble.

Tony didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but Bruce finally pulled his face away from Tony’s shoulder. His eyes were no longer green, but now they were a faint red. As Bruce drew further away, running a palm over his face to scrub away the mess of tears, Tony kept one steady hand on his friend’s shoulder, a grounding point.

“Sorry,” Bruce murmured thickly, withdrawing further into himself. He almost looked like he wanted to shrink away from Tony’s hand, but also like he was wretchedly grateful for the point of contact.

“Don’t apologize,” Tony said softly, reassuringly. 

Bruce shook his head and let one of his hands cover his face again. There was a sniffle, followed by a shaky inhale. “I’ve been having these nightmares since I’ve come back,” he admitted in a tiny voice, and Tony swore he could hear his heart break. “E-Everything’s so close to the surface again,” Bruce explained after drawing another trembling breath, “things I thought I’d never have to deal with again. It’s…It’s all there again, and…”

As he trailed off, Tony tried to breathe around the lump lodged in his throat and chest. He gave Bruce’s shoulder a light squeeze, and whether he was conscious of it or not, Bruce leaned a little into the touch. 

They sat together in the resounding silence, neither of them speaking, and neither of them drawing away from the single point of contact between them.

A few minutes passed in that fashion before Bruce turned hesitant eyes toward Tony. “Did… Why are you here?” he asked in a low whisper.

“JARVIS told me you were awake,” Tony explained. 

Bruce’s brow furrowed. “Has he been waking you up every night?” he asked, sounding distressed.

That ache in Tony’s chest stabbed a little deeper. “Have you been having nightmares every night?” he asked in a tight voice. When Bruce looked away from him, Tony gave that shoulder another squeeze. “No, JARVIS hasn’t been waking me up,” he finally answered hoarsely. “This is the first time he has since…”

Without looking back at the engineer, Bruce gave a faint nod. “Makes sense,” he murmured almost to himself, “since this was the worst one.” 

Tony didn’t even need to ask what the dream had been about. Without a doubt, Bruce had dreamed of his mother’s murder again. 

Wordlessly, Tony scooted a little closer and let his arm wrap around Bruce’s shoulders, and Bruce slumped against him. Another silence fell over them, only broken by their breathing and nothing else.

Finally, an indeterminate amount of time later, Bruce exhaled a sigh. “Thank you,” he murmured.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: A scene where Fury also totally begins to fall for little Bruce and can't quite keep up with his gruff/indifferent Director of SHIELD facade.**

As the director of SHIELD, one of the largest networks of agents and spies alike, Nick Fury did not deal with children. 

Yet here he was, 30,000 feet in the air on the helicarrier, with a four year old Bruce Banner sitting in his windowless office. 

Stark had made it _blatantly_ obvious that this was a less than ideal situation, but with the full team being needed out in the field, Agent Coulson out on a mission with his smaller team of SHIELD agents, and Ms. Potts out of town on business, there was no one left to watch the transformed child. 

Banner was a well-behaved kid at his current age, which Fury was thankful for. The information they had collected on Dr. Banner’s history had not painted a pleasant picture, so he was relieved that he was a good kid instead of the juvenile delinquent with a history of dangerous anger management issues.

The kid was sitting quietly in one of the chairs in front of Fury’s desk, exactly where Stark had left him. The only noise that came from the child’s general direction was the soft scratching of pencil against paper as the boy filled in numbers in his little book of Sudoku puzzles. 

Fury only glanced over at him intermittently, as he was focused on running this mission from his office instead of at the command center. 

Finally, the Avengers beat the threat to the planet and the mission was over. They would be back to the helicarrier in roughly four hours.

Fury congratulated his agents and signed off before he released a soft breath. 

“Is everyone okay?” 

Fury glanced over at the four year old when the near-silent words reached him. Banner was watching him anxiously, his puzzle book all but forgotten. “They might be a bit banged up,” he replied, “but yes, everyone’s okay.”

Relief flashed across the boy’s face. “Good,” he breathed.

The conversation ended with that and, as the child got back to his puzzle book, Fury began sorting through the post-mission documentation and getting everything ready for the debriefing. 

It wasn’t long before he had everything ready, and he turned his eye back to the child and just…watched for a moment as the boy quietly finished one of his puzzles. A tiny smile of satisfaction crossed the kid’s face before he turned to the next Sudoku board with fresh determination and concentration.

A moment later, though, the kid glanced up and caught Fury watching him. 

Fury felt the corner of his mouth twitch, but he kept his face neutral. “We have three hours before the team gets back,” he disclosed, and Banner’s expression became cautiously curious. “How about a proper tour of the ‘carrier?”

The excitement that immediately appeared on the kid’s face brought a smile to Fury’s own. “Really?” the boy asked eagerly.

Instead of replying, Fury got to his feet and motioned for the kid to do the same. 

They wandered the halls of the helicarrier, pausing at windows to let the kid marvel over the view. They were still high up in the air, well above the clouds and the shore. In the distance, they could see the skyline of New York City when the clouds broke enough to allow them to see that far down. 

By the time they got to the bridge and command center, only a few SHIELD agents were still sitting at their stations. There were a few small clumps of agents gathered, and their conversations immediately paused when they saw the Director of SHIELD walk into the room with a little boy on his heels. A quick glance from Fury got them to stop staring, and they continued their conversations in more hushed voices. 

The child didn’t pay them any mind. His eyes had lit up the instant they had walked into the room, and he was looking around at everything in avid wonder. “Is this where you fly the ship?” he asked in a small, amazed voice.

The kid’s admiration of everything there was to see brought another involuntary smile to Fury’s lips. “It is,” he answered. 

He stepped up to the pair of screens at the center of the floorplan and waited for the child to move next to him before he turned his attention to one of the agents steering the helicarrier. “Agent, do a slow three-sixty sweep and then proceed on course.”

A small spark of confusion flashed for the briefest of seconds across the agent’s face, but he followed the order without question. 

The boy watched eagerly as the different agents flying the ‘carrier called out commands to one another, and then looked past the window in front of them as their view slowly began to sweep along the coastline of New York. The child had an amazed smile on his face, like he had never seen anything like it before—he likely hadn’t.

“This is so cool,” the four year old breathed.

Fury felt himself smile again and he looked back out the window. Bruce was a good kid, and he was beginning to understand why his team was so attached to him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Junker5 requested: I apologize if you get this twice. My rotten cat jumped on my ipad and I'm not sure if my letter sent or erased! I would love a scene with Uncle Bruce and Tony babysitting a baby Stark. Sprout & your 25 Days of Christmas have me totally loving Bruce**

“Maaaa-ria!”

The baby girl giggled and clapped her tiny hands together, and when Bruce smiled back at the baby, Tony felt himself grin.

Maria Stark was just five months old, and Tony had no idea where the time was going. She was already sitting up on her own without help for several minutes at a time. She’d be walking and talking in no time. She was already beginning to babble, and from all of the different things Tony had read, her first words were just around the corner.

She already knew her name, and as Bruce repeated it again to her, she laughed delightedly again. It prompted a soft laugh out of Bruce, and Tony felt himself smile again. 

They were up in the penthouse, away from the lab for the day since Tony had to watch his daughter for the afternoon. Tony was leaning comfortably back on the sofa, watching Bruce play with his little girl. “Are you gonna stay down there all day?” Tony asked teasingly.

From his position on the floor, lying on his stomach in front of Maria, Bruce glanced briefly back at the father. He turned another smile back at the baby, who immediately cooed happily to have his attention again. “You like me being down here with you, right?” he asked the baby, and her smile widened. “Right, Maaa-ria!”

As Maria laughed gleefully again, Tony couldn’t help but laugh, too. 

Bruce pushed himself up into a seated position. “She is the sweetest little baby,” he said, lifting her carefully when she reached for him. She latched her little hands into the fabric of his shirt and made little “buh-buh-buh” sounds which dissolved into giggles when he carefully straightened some of her red hair. “It’s hard to imagine that she’s actually your child.”

Tony shrugged. “Well, she’s got Pepper for a mother,” he said by way of explanation.

Bruce hummed in agreement as Maria looked toward Tony. Another smile lit up her face and she reached for him. “Da,” she babbled happily.

Tony beamed. “That’s right!” he praised. “Da-da.”

“Da!” she said again, reaching for Tony. “Da-ba-ba.”

Bruce smiled adoringly and handed her over to her father. “She’s so close to talking,” he mused as he leaned back, watching the little girl grab at the fabric covering his arc reactor. 

“She’s getting there,” Tony agreed, watching his daughter with loving eyes. She was starting to get a little fidgety, which meant she was starting to get sleepy. “I’m gonna go put her down to sleep, and then we can start going over some of that new data.”

“Sounds good,” Bruce said, watching Tony stand up. He watched them for a moment before he got to his feet. “Let me go grab something really quick,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

Before Tony could respond, Maria made a fussy noise. He shushed her gently and began the trek back to the nursery, and by the time he got there, she was crying. 

He was making little circuits of the room, hoping the movement would calm her down, but she kept crying. Her diaper was clean, and she had her bottle an hour ago. She was just cranky. 

“Baby, you’re just tired,” Tony said reassuringly, but she didn’t listen.

A few minutes later, she suddenly stopped mid-wail. Tony looked over at her, but her watery eyes were locked on something behind him. He twisted to see what had her attention, and he immediately felt his breath catch.

Bruce was standing in the doorway, and in his hand was the stuffed rhino Tony had bought for him nearly two years ago. He was making the stuffed animal dance in midair, and once Maria had stopped crying, he stepped forward, keeping the toy dancing. 

“Poor, cranky baby,” Bruce said softly in a sing-song voice, making the toy move in time with his voice, and the little girl let out a watery laugh. Bruce smiled again and let the stuffed rhino come a little closer.

Maria reached for it, and her chubby little fingers ran over the soft fluff. She cooed softly as her hand ran over the toy.

Tony began to rock a little now that she had calmed down, and Bruce hummed a little tune and made the stuffed rhino dance until the baby girl’s eyes grew heavy. Tony carefully set her down in her crib and she didn’t even fuss.

“You are some kind of baby-whisperer, I swear,” Tony whispered as he looked down on his sleeping daughter. He glanced back over at Bruce, who was also watching the baby, but his fingers were moving across the stuffed animal in his hand.

Bruce peered over at him and caught Tony staring at the stuffed rhino. “I’ve been wanting to give it to her,” he mumbled in explanation. “I mean, I know it’s not new or anything, but—”

“Are you sure?” Tony asked, meeting Bruce’s eyes. He knew how important that toy had been to the little boy he had cared for and loved those two years ago. In those six short weeks, the toy had gone from new to love-worn in certain areas.

Bruce smiled and looked down at the stuffed rhino. “I think she’ll have more fun with it than I will,” he replied softly, offering it over to Tony. “It served its purpose with me. It’s time for it to be loved by your real child.”

Tony felt his breath catch again, but he knew an affectionate smile had crossed his face, and he accepted the stuffed rhino.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Seekingsquake requested: A Sprout prompt: bby!Bruce asking someone on the team if, instead of sending him back to the "past", they could bring his mom to the "future". Because that's safer for them both.**

“Hey, little man,” Clint said softly, and Bruce jumped a little.

It was a pretty dreary day. The little boy was sitting in front of one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and was watching little droplets of rain trickle down the glass. Pepper was in meetings all day, and Tony had needed someone to come over and watch Bruce so he could get some major work done down in the lab. The child didn’t mind spending time in the lab with Tony, but there were only so many times you could sit around and play puzzle games before you became bored out of your mind.

Clint had disappeared for a quick bathroom break, and when he had gotten back, he had found the boy in front of the window. Bruce looked up at him and smiled before he went back to looking out the window.

The archer sat down next to him and looked passed the droplets on the glass and out at the city. “Everything okay?” he asked, glancing over at the kid.

Bruce shifted just enough for him to pull his knees up under his chin. “Do you think Tony could bring Momma to the future?” he asked softly, so soft the words nearly petered out before they reached Clint.

The question threw Clint off, and he felt like someone had doused him in ice water. 

Before he could possibly think of some kind of response, Bruce hugged his legs closer to his chest. “Momma would like it here,” the boy murmured. “I just know she’d love all of you. She’d like the city, and I know she would _love_ the view.” He tipped his chin downward until his words were muffled by his knees. “She…She’d be safe here. She’d see how safe it is, and how nice everyone is, a-and…” He drew a soft breath. “No one would hurt her here.”

Clint stared out the window, his throat tight with emotion. He had no idea what to say. To say yes would give the boy false hope that he could ever be reunited with his mother, and to say no would give Bruce doubts that he’d ever get home and possibly lead him to the truth. There was no good answer, for either answer was a lie.

He swallowed the thickness in his throat and laid a hand against the child’s back. Some of the tension in the boy’s shoulders loosened, and he leaned into the touch as he normally did when he yearned to be comforted.

“It’d be perfect,” Bruce breathed faintly, his tiny voice tight. “We’d be safe… We’d be happy. It…I-It’s…”

As Bruce’s voice faltered, Clint let the hand against the child’s back begin to move in slow circling patterns. Desolation appeared on the boy’s distraught face, and he sniffled before he buried his face against his knees.

Clint hefted the child into his lap, and Bruce instantly latched onto his chest, burying his face against one of the archer’s shoulders. 

“It’s _impossible_ ,” Bruce finished in a miserable whisper. 

Not wanting to lie, Clint kept silent. All he could do is soothe the poor child who wanted nothing more than to not only see his mother again, but to see her _safe._ It was a wish, but nothing more than that.

He held the boy against him, silently vowing that he would do anything he could to protect this child who knew at far too early an age that some wishes didn’t come true.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
>  
> 
> **caelean requested: Post-Sprout, a talk between Bruce and Thor about young Bruce’s fear of loud noises, and how that compares to loud noise triggers as seen in the TIH movie.**

“Thor, you’ve got a trail of bogeys on your flank,” Clint’s voice said over their communication link.

Thor heard the words over the rush of wind around him as he rocketed through the air. He glanced in the direction the agent had informed him of and, sure enough, there were five enemies following him. “Most appreciated,” the Asgardian replied as he changed his trajectory. He landed on a nearby building and thrust Mjölnir toward the sky. 

Great thunderheads began to build in the sky as sparks ran across the runes of his hammer, and with a great clap of thunder, lightning tore across the sky and struck Mjölnir. With another might thrust of his arm, the lightning was redirected at the bogeys that had been following him across the battlefield. 

Once the sounds of the crackling lightning and rolling thunder began to vanish, the sound of Hulk’s roaring could be heard. 

Thor looked off in that direction, but his focus was swiftly diverted when more enemies appeared. 

It was a long and harrowing battle, and he was thankful that they were back up to their full roster. It was the first major mission since Bruce had been transformed back into an adult, and without their heavy hitter, today’s battle would have been even more harrowing. 

As they were all reconvening down on the ground, one last string of enemies appeared. He and Steve traded a quick glance, and even as Thor lifted Mjölnir high over his head, the captain braced himself and his shield.

The shockwave that knocked over their incoming bogeys sent a resounding **_boom_** through the air, and—

There was a sudden snarl, and by the time Thor and Steve twisted around, Hulk had already leapt away. 

“Big Guy, wai—Hulk!” Tony shouted after him. His faceplate slid back into place and he rocketed off after their massive green comrade. 

The remaining four Avengers stared after Tony, and as the sounds of the suit’s thrusters vanished, another inhuman roar sounded in the distance. 

They didn’t get long to ruminate on what had happened, as SHIELD arrived on the scene. Still, Thor glanced down at his hammer and back in the direction Hulk had jumped away to, and he had to wonder.

==

The following morning, Thor stepped out onto balcony and found Bruce exactly where he had expected to see him. The doctor was seated in a loose lotus position facing the rising sun, letting the new light of day wash over his features and bathe him in golden light. The man’s eyes were closed in meditation.

He must not have been very deep, for as soon as Thor took a quiet step forward, Bruce’s eyes popped open and he looked up with a start. The demigod froze where he stood and gave a smile of reassurance. “I would like to join you, if you have no qualms,” Thor requested politely.

Bruce blinked up at him for another moment before he returned the smile with one of his own. “Of course,” the man replied, gesturing loosely to the space next to him.

Thor moved forward and sank down into a similar position to Bruce’s, though he kept his palms on his knees and did not close his eyes. Instead, he stared past the rays of the rising sun and focused on nothing but his thoughts.

Even without looking, he knew that Bruce hadn’t returned to meditating yet. He could feel the physicist’s eyes going from the horizon to him, and then back to the horizon again, and then back to him in a seemingly endless loop. 

Finally, Bruce spoke. “Was there… Is there something I can do for you?” he asked, sounding unsure.

“I noticed a peculiarity with Hulk in yesterday’s battle that I wished to discuss with you,” the Asgardian replied, finally looking away from the sunrise and to the man sitting next to him. 

“A peculiarity?” Bruce repeated. He suddenly looked wary.

Thor kept still, but internally he could feel himself want to shift. “It’s… It is more of a similarity that I’ve noticed than anything,” he admitted. “I noted earlier in the clash that your warrior alter ego did not respond well to the sound of my thunder and lightning.” He saw tension begin to settle into Bruce’s stance. “And he fled in the face of the shockwave created by the combined forces of Mjölnir and the captain’s shield.”

“It was the noise,” Bruce murmured softly to himself, the words nearly lost in the space between them. 

“Aye, I agree,” Thor replied with a nod. He actually gave in to the urge to shift. He brought his hands together until his elbows were resting upon his knees. “And if I may, it reminded me a great deal of how you reacted to me when you were a boy.”

It had barely been three weeks since Dr. Banner had been returned to them. During that time, little had been said regarding what had happened. Sure, the team had been making efforts to show their returned teammate that he was wanted not just as a teammate, but as a valued friend, but there had been scant discussion about his time spent as a child. It was a sensitive subject, and their friend was still working through everything that had happened in those six weeks.

So it came as no surprise to Thor that Bruce immediately looked off and broke his meditative stance to slouch in on himself. It saddened the Asgardian to see such a reaction, but the fact that the other man hadn’t retreated from him completely gave him the courage to go on.

“Forgive me if you do not wish to discuss it,” Thor continued softly, gently, “but I recall the conversation I had when you were a boy, about how loud noises meant something bad. Do you remember?”

He risked a quick glance at Bruce and saw that the man was still hunched in on himself and was staring off at nothing. Tension was coming off of him in waves, and with it distress. 

Thor bit back a frown and returned his eyes to the horizon. The silence that embraced them was uncomfortable and tense, but right before the Asgardian drew a breath, he was interrupted by a single spoken word. 

“…vaguely.”

As Thor looked back at Bruce, he found the doctor still rather curled in on himself—it reminded him a great deal of the little boy the man had become—but his eyes were focused on something not in the present. There was concentration mixed into his distress. “Beg your pardon?” Thor asked.

“I vaguely remember that conversation with you,” Bruce explained quietly. “I remember being…being frightened by you, and I remember it was because you were…”

When he hesitated, Thor smiled. “Loud?” he suggested.

Bruce huffed a soft laugh. “Yes,” he confirmed, “loud. Loud was never a good thing growing up. I…I think that’s something that’s translated into the Oth…the Hulk.” He hesitated for a moment, but then he glanced over and met Thor’s eyes. “When we were attacked at Culver, a few days before the Harlem incident, Hulk took Betty away to somewhere safe. It was apparently raining pretty hard—I don’t remember any of this. _Really_ bad thunderstorm. Well, Betty said that Hulk had tried to attack the thunderstorm. He…he doesn’t like loud noises. They’re threats.”

“Just like they were in your childhood,” Thor concluded knowingly, and Bruce shook his head and glanced down. 

“Just like they still are,” Bruce replied softly toward his lap. “Loud noises usually mean a fight, which means pain. Thunder, heavy artillery, bombs, _missiles_ …all really loud, and typically pretty painful.”

Thor stared over at the other man, dismay running through his veins. 

Bruce drew a breath and looked back over at the demigod. “It’s…it’s still something we’re getting used to. Loud noises nowadays still mean _fight,_ but it’s not the same as it was before. I…I don’t know, I think maybe having been…y’know,” he gestured vaguely, alluding to his time spent as a child, “again brought all of those old fears back to the surface. There are things I hadn’t thought about in _decades_ suddenly at the forefront of my mind again, and it’s just…taking some time to readjust.” 

He gave Thor a little smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “He shouldn’t run off the next there’s a fight, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He glanced back out toward the horizon. “We just need to get through this and return to our baseline.”

“That is not my concern,” Thor replied. 

Bruce’s eyes shot back to him when one of the Asgardian’s hands landed on Bruce’s shoulder. Their eyes met, and Thor felt something in his chest break when he spotted the vulnerability in the other man’s gaze. 

Thor smiled and gave Bruce’s shoulder a light squeeze. “I am concerned for _you,_ friend,” he replied. “Should you ever desire to talk this through with anyone, or talk anything through, please do not hesitate to seek counsel with me. If there is anything myself or the rest of the team can do to assist you, please let us know.”

From the look on the doctor’s face, Thor knew Bruce had no idea how to respond. He could see the man’s immediate reaction to disregard the offer as something he didn’t deserve, but he paused. Embarrassment and another myriad of emotions flashed across his face, but when he met Thor’s eyes again, it was gratitude that was at the forefront. 

“Thank you,” Bruce replied softly, reaching up and hesitantly resting his hand against the one that was already resting on his shoulder.

Thor smiled. “You are most welcome, friend,” he responded. He gave the man’s shoulder another light squeeze before he retracted his hand.

Together in a much more comfortable silence, they watched the sunrise before slipping into mediation.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Amy1om requested: The only thing I can think of is a request for Christmas (in July?) - a full blown Christmas with everyone there including Coulson (and Fury if he can not be a jerk for a little while) because I am sure Bruce never got a really great Christmas (but I bet his mama tried to make it as special as she could). I mainly want some very special moments between Tony and little Bruce! I adored this verse so much and am TOO EXCITED that you’re filling prompts for it!**

“Are those ornaments?” Bruce asked, looking curiously at the box Tony had set down on the coffee table. 

Ever since Tony and Pepper had purchased and set up a Christmas tree in the living room of the penthouse, Bruce had been a little quieter than normal. He had watched them put it up avidly, but the boy had kept his distance. 

Even now, Bruce was sitting on the far side of the sofa. While he had put some distance between himself and the holiday decorations, he still watched everything with open curiosity.

It made Tony ache to even begin to speculate about the boy’s behavior, but he was determined to make sure Bruce had a perfect Christmas.

“They are,” Tony confirmed as he continued to pull smaller boxes of ornaments from the large cardboard box that had been in storage since last Christmas. 

Bruce leaned forward a little to look more closely at one of the boxes. “I didn’t know they could look like that,” he said softly. “I thought Christmas ornaments were just shaped like a ball.”

That ache reappeared in Tony’s chest, but he swallowed it down. “Nah,” he said as he finished unpacking the storage box, “they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.” He got to his feet and circled the table to sit down on the sofa. He smiled over at the little boy and opened his arm to welcome the child over to his side.

Bruce scooted a little closer in hesitant movements, but a moment later, he was curled up against Tony’s side and looking at all of the different ornaments laid out before them.

==

“Okay,” Tony began when they got to the mall, pulling the car into a parking space, “do you know what you’d like to get Pepper for Christmas?” At the boy’s silence, he twisted around to glance at Bruce in his car seat. The child looked confused, and Tony instantly felt his smile slip away. 

“I’m allowed to get Pepper something?” Bruce asked cautiously. 

“Well, yes,” Tony replied, bewildered, “of course you’re allowed.”

Bruce’s gaze went down to his lap. “Momma and Daddy never take to get Christmas gifts,” he disclosed softly. “Last Christmas, I drew Momma and Daddy a bunch of pictures, a-and…” He trailed off and ducked his head a little lower. “Daddy didn’t like my gift.”

Tony stared at the child for a long moment before he opened his car door. He slipped around the vehicle and opened the side door before he crawled into the back seat next to Bruce. He rested his hand upon the little boy’s knee, and when Bruce slowly gazed over at him, the wounded look on the boy’s face sent a stabbing pain deep into Tony’s chest.

“Any gift from you is special,” Tony told him. “Your daddy should have been grateful for your drawings.”

“They weren’t very good,” Bruce pointed out feebly, dropping his eyes to his lap again.

“That doesn’t matter,” Tony replied. “You made those drawings especially for him, and he should have treasured them.” 

When Bruce hesitantly looked back at him, Tony offered the boy a smile. “If you’ve already drawn us things for Christmas, we will absolutely love it,” he promised the child, “but if you wanted to also get them another small gift to go with your drawings, we can do that.”

“Really?” Bruce asked in a voice that was quietly hopeful. 

Tony smiled and gave Bruce’s knee a soft pat. “Absolutely,” he said. “Do you have any ideas for Pepper?”

Bruce returned the smile, and within a few minutes, they had a list of little things Bruce wanted to get everyone for Christmas to accompany his drawings.

==

“Phil! I’m so glad you could join us,” Pepper greeted as Coulson stepped off of the elevator.

“And you’re not in a suit!” Tony added as he came up behind Pepper, wrapping his arms around her waist. “It’s a Christmas miracle.”

“And a Merry Christmas to you, Mr. Stark,” Coulson replied completely deadpan, but he was smiling. 

Christmas Day had been an absolute joy. Getting to see Bruce just be a kid for once and just _enjoy_ himself was truly the greatest gift Tony had received. Getting to see the boy’s face when he saw the gifts under the tree that morning would be with Tony forever. 

The morning had been just for the three of them, but Tony and Pepper had invited the rest of the team and Coulson over for dinner on two conditions: one, they had to bring a dish for dinner, and two, they needed to bring a gift for Bruce. No one had an issue with either, and with each new arrival, a gift exchange was done between Bruce and the newcomer. 

A majority of what Bruce received was fictional books, but there was an arts and crafts kit from Natasha and a puzzle book from Thor. Everyone adored the little gifts from Bruce, with the drawings being the most treasured gifts. 

Pepper took the casserole dish from Coulson and managed to escape from Tony’s hold. “Mr. Coulson’s here!” she called, a smile on her face.

Immediately, there were sounds of people getting to their feet from the living room. A moment later, Bruce came dashing around the corner, a radiant smile on his face that only grew brighter when he saw Coulson standing there.

“Mr. Coulson!” the boy exclaimed.

“Hey!” Coulson greeted the child as he knelt down to accept the eager hug from the boy. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Bruce replied. When they broke apart, the child took hold of Coulson’s free hand. “Everyone’s in the living room,” he disclosed.

As Bruce led Coulson into the living room, Tony followed Pepper into the kitchen so she could add his dish to the others that were sitting along the counter. The roast was still cooking in the oven and would be ready in about twenty minutes (at least that’s what the instructions said). 

Tony crowded into Pepper’s space again and kissed just below her ear. “We need to have more holidays here,” he murmured. “I like the sound of a full house.”

“It’s nice,” Pepper replied, turning in his arms so they were facing one another. They shared a brief kiss, one that Tony wanted to make longer, but Pepper only hummed in amusement and took a step back. “We can’t miss the gift exchange,” she said softly against his lips.

They walked together back into the living room, where Coulson was marveling over the drawings that had been presented to him, along with a new coffee mug. “Thank you,” the agent said softly with genuine gratitude. He smiled and handed the boy the gift wrapped box he had walked in with. “And this is for you.”

Bruce was careful in pulling off the wrapping paper, just like he had been for every other gift he had received, and pulled out what looked like a small block of plastic. “What is it?” Bruce asked curiously, turning it over in his hands.

“It’s a handheld game of Tetris,” Coulson explained as he leaned back against the sofa. “You can play it anywhere, as long as you have light and batteries.”

Next to him, Natasha snorted a laugh. “You’re such a dork,” she said affectionately.

“What’s Tetris?” Bruce asked.

There was a stunned silence, and suddenly Tony found himself on the receiving end of some incredulous stares. 

Finally, Clint shook his head in mock-disgust. “You’ve just lost all of your nerd-cred, Tony,” he said. Before Tony could protest, Clint beckoned the boy with open arms. “Come here, kiddo, and we will teach you the ways of Tetris.”

The room filled with laughter, and Tony leaned a bit more into Pepper’s side. As they watched Clint and Coulson begin to teach Bruce how to play Tetris, Pepper turned her head just slightly and her lips grazed his cheek. “Merry Christmas,” she murmured softly.

Tony smiled and pressed a kiss against her lips. “Merry Christmas.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **lapillus requested: I’d love anything from the POV of the other Avengers, Phil or Pepper, either during the transformation or afterwards, talking to Bruce (or each other).**

“Give them hell,” Phil said into his headset before muting his comm link. 

He was on a mission with the Avengers, one that required a certain level of stealth until they were made. Until that point, it was just Phil and Dr. Banner on the nearby jet, keeping an eye on everyone in the field.

It was his time to really get a chance to look at Bruce since he had been returned to his adult self. He looked as he always had: a little uncomfortable, a bit withdrawn, and his hands moving in anxious tics as he waited for the inevitable word from the team that they needed the Hulk.

But there was also something more relaxed about him. His shoulders weren’t quite so tense or hunched. 

Phil watched him for a moment longer before he pulled his headset off his ears and let them rest around his neck. Bruce caught the movement from the corner of his eye and glanced briefly over at him.

“How are you doing?” Phil asked as he sat down on one of the benches that lined the sides of the jet. 

Bruce looked back at him and a small smile touched his lips. “Fine, fine,” he replied softly with a nod.

“I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to check in with you sooner,” Phil apologized, and when a small note of confusion touched the doctor’s features, he went on. “How are you, really? After what had happened to you?”

Discomfort appeared on the man’s face, and Bruce looked off as he ran his thumb over the knuckles of his other hand. He seemed almost embarrassed. 

“I’m…” Bruce began hesitantly, still not looking at Phil. “I’m okay. Still…sorting through all the memories I have, and…yeah.” He peeked momentarily back at Phil. “I’m okay.”

“How much do you remember?” Phil asked. No one really seemed to know the answer for certain, except for maybe Tony, but he never seemed keen on talking about it.

A moment of silence passed between them before a soft sigh escaped from Bruce and he sank down onto the seat across from Phil. His eyes were locked on his fiddling hands. “It’s…” he paused, trying to find the right words to better articulate his thoughts. “Some of it feels a little cloudy, like the memories from my real childhood, and then some of it is…really fresh.” His hands stopped fidgeting for long enough for Bruce to meet Phil’s eyes. “I do remember you watching me when Tony and Pepper needed to be out of town.”

Phil felt himself blink in surprise. “You remember that?” he asked. With the amount of time the child had spent with the Avengers, these super-powered extraordinary individuals, it was certainly surprising that his day spent with the child would stay with him. 

A soft, nostalgic smile crossed Bruce’s face, and he met Phil’s eyes again. “I don’t remember all of it,” he admitted, “but I do remember our conversation after breakfast that morning, a few days after I had destroyed that room.” 

There was a small flash of guilt that appeared on the doctor’s face, but just as fast as it had appeared, it was gone. “You told me I needed to learn to forgive myself.”

And just like that, Phil remembered that exact moment Bruce was relaying to him. “You remember that?” 

There was a crackle of static over the comm link, and they both immediately turned their attention to the incoming message. The team was ready for the Hulk to make an appearance.

Phil watched as Bruce ditched his headset and began to disrobe. There was a look of determination on his face as he mentally prepared himself for the transformation. The agent pushed the button to lower the ramp at the back of the jet, and off in the distance, they could hear the sounds of battle.

Bruce slipped out of his shoes and walked toward the exit, but before he rushed off, he turned and glanced back at Phil. When their eyes met, a warm smile crossed Bruce’s face.

“It just kind of stuck with me,” Bruce admitted, and while his words were still tinged with nostalgia, there was a layer of gratitude mixed in, and Phil suddenly wondered if anyone had ever said something like that to the other man.

Bruce smiled again before he ran off. Phil watched his skin turn green and expand with an inhuman roar.

As the Hulk leapt away to join the fray, Phil realized Bruce had grown in more ways than he had initially thought.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: I’d love a scene where we see how DUM-E and U react after Bruce is grown again because they loved him so much when he was little. Do they still view him with as much affection? And what about JARVIS? If anyone can build a machine/artificial intelligence capable of feeling love, then it is Tony Stark and I want to know how the resident AI and the bots were effected by Bruce returning to normal!**

Tony was running late. He had promised Bruce that he would meet him in the lab earlier that afternoon, but then he had gotten roped into a business lunch with the rest of the folks from the meeting he had been forced to go to with Pepper, and now it was after two in the afternoon. 

He practically burst through the laboratory doors, but before he could complain about the reasons for his tardiness, he stopped dead in his tracks and just stared.

Across the lab, Bruce was sitting on a stool at one of the lab tables. In front of him was a holograph that he was manipulating in small fleeting movements.

And in his lap were DUM-E and U’s claws. 

When the doctor wasn’t making changes on the holograph he was working on, his hands lightly pat the robot’s claws. Each of the bots were chittering happily under Bruce’s attention, and Bruce looked like he didn’t mind at all that they were behaving like they were the world’s largest and most metallic lap dogs.

Bruce glanced over and spotted Tony standing flabbergasted across the room. “Meeting go over?” he asked.

DUM-E and U immediately pulled their claws off of Bruce’s lap and twisted around to Tony. If Tony didn’t know any better, he could have _sworn_ they lowered their claws like guilty little children before they rolled off to get back to what they should have been working on.

Tony watched the pair roll toward a different part of the lab before he walked over to Bruce. “You know you don’t have to indulge them,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the two bots.

Bruce smiled and pulled his glasses off. “I don’t mind,” he replied. “They’re really rather sweet.”

“And they _love_ you,” Tony said, shooting a faux-betrayed look over at DUM-E and U. 

“Is that a note of jealousy I hear in your voice?” Bruce asked, quiet amusement touching his words. When Tony turned that look on Bruce instead, he huffed a laugh. “I don’t know why they like me as much as they do,” he admitted. “They’ve been like this since…y’know.”

“I do know,” Tony replied. “They _adored_ you as a kid.”

“Right,” Bruce said. “So I don’t really know why they’re still so affectionate. I’m not complaining or anything. It’s just a bit…confusing.”

Tony hummed and glanced back across the laboratory toward where U and DUM-E were working together. He watched them for a moment before he turned back to Bruce. “So, let’s get to work.”

==

They flew into the laboratory at a full run. “J, get the monitors up!” Tony shouted while his armor was coming off and as Bruce threw on a headset. 

“Alright, Cap, we’ll be ready in a sec,” Bruce said once he was patched into the communication frequency, his voice all but gone and looking like he was a minute away from passing out.

They were in the middle of a mission. As soon as it was discovered that what was needed to defeat their villain of the day was some genius computer skills and a mathematician, Steve had ordered Iron Man and Hulk back to the tower to figure out the solution before any civilians could be hurt. 

Tony slipped out of his Iron Man armor as soon as he was able, the timing just perfect as JARVIS got the holographic screens up and running. Bruce tossed him his own headset and they jumped into numbers and programing. Bruce was basically running on fumes now, with only the mission to keep him from passing out from the exhaustion that always came with a Hulk transformation. His hands were too shaky to handle plugging in the numbers, but his mind was as sharp as ever. As he rattled off numbers and formulas, Tony expertly manipulated the screens and, a few short minutes later, they had their solution.

“Alright, we’re uploading the data now,” Tony reported into the headset to the team. “You should see some fireworks in three minutes.”

Bruce spoke up. “We’re keeping an eye on the status from here, but if you can—oh, thank you—if you can keep us updated—”

“Will do,” Steve’s voice came through the headsets, and then there was radio silence.

Tony exhaled a long breath and sat back. “What was that _thank you_ for?” he asked as he twisted around, and— 

“Oh,” was all he could really say as DUM-E handed him a cup with what looked like a blended fruit smoothie inside and dripping down the sides of the glass. 

Bruce had a similar glass in his shaky grasp, but he looked too exhausted to care that he was getting smoothie all over his hand. U was draping a blanket over Bruce’s bare shoulders, making clicking noises and fussing over Bruce. 

DUM-E made a soft chittering noise and lightly pinched the fabric of Tony’s shirt, drawing his attention away from the other man. “I’m okay, buddy,” Tony murmured softly, reaching up and giving the robotic claw a reassuring pat. He took a sip of his smoothie and gave DUM-E another pat that had the bot making soft chittering noises of pleasure. “Now go take care of Bruce,” he whispered.

The bot made a delighted whirr and quickly rolled off to go help U drag Bruce over to the sofa in the corner of the lab. 

Bruce turned a look back at Tony as he obediently allowed himself to be led away. There was amusement on his exhausted features, but more than anything, he looked touched that the two bots cared so much for him.

Steve’s voice came through over the headset. “Great job, guys. Whatever you did worked.”

Tony made a noise of cheer that was echoed by DUM-E and U. “We did it,” he said to Bruce. “Now finish your drink and take a nap.”

“You got it,” Bruce replied with a loose salute. He looked back at the two bots hovering over him and gave them each a smile and a pat on the claw. “Thank you,” he said softly to them, his voice filled with gratitude.

DUM-E and U both purred with affection.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Caelean requested: Post-Sprout, someone asking if Hulk remembers any of what happened (Tony, or Clint, maybe? Possibly Natasha?).**

“Anyone have eyes on Hulk?” 

It was a fairly easy mission. Despite it happening in Central Park, there were no civilian casualties and the property damage was limited. All-in-all, it was a good mission. 

“Last time I saw him,” Tony replied over the comm links, “he was headed west from our starting point. I haven’t heard him roaring lately.”

“Maybe he’s already transformed back,” Natasha suggested as she started to jog in the direction Tony suggested. 

It took a few minutes, but she finally spotted him. Hulk hadn’t transformed back at all, but was instead standing in the center of a concrete pathway, staring down at the ground. Natasha watched him from a distance for a long moment before she informed the rest of the team she found him.

Hulk remained almost frighteningly still as she carefully approached. She had never seen Bruce’s alter ego stay so motionless before. 

Natasha moved slowly forward, ready for anything. “Hulk,” she said.

The green behemoth glanced momentarily over at her, and with a noise that was less of a growl and more of a hum, his eyes went back to the ground. Natasha followed his gaze and realized he was staring down at a child’s chalk drawing. There were a few pieces of broken chalk of varying different colors dotted around, and one of the drawings was smudged. A quick glance downward confirmed that there was a bit of chalk dust on Hulk’s feet.

“Hulk, are you okay?” she asked, her voice softening as she took another cautious step forward. 

Instead of answering, Hulk merely tipped his head slightly, like doing so would give him a different angle to appreciate the drawings at his feet. 

Slowly, the giant crouched down. His giant hand reached forward and he tried to pick up a piece of broken chalk, but his fingers were too big and the chalk was too small. 

Natasha knelt down next to him and picked up the chalk for him. She somehow didn’t hesitate as she gently turned Hulk’s hand over and placed the chalk into the massive palm of his hand. 

Hulk looked at her briefly before he returned his attention to the tiny piece of chalk resting in one of the creases of his palm. 

With an amazing amount of dexterity, Hulk managed to pick up the small piece of chalk between finger and thumb without crushing it. Natasha watched, amazed, as he started to crudely fix the smudges he had caused during the battle.

And suddenly, Natasha was taken back to a day about two months ago, when a four year old Bruce Banner had drawn on one of the paths in this very park. 

Natasha watched Hulk finish fixing the lines before he snorted in what sounded like satisfaction. “Hulk,” she began curiously, “do you remember what happened to you a few months ago?” 

When Hulk glanced over at her, she elaborated. “Do you remember any of it? Of being a child?”

Hulk stared at her for a long time, which should have been unsettling, but Natasha waited. The giant green man looked back down at the abandoned drawings on the asphalt, studying them for about a minute before he let the piece of chalk between his fingers drop back down to the earth. 

He rose from his crouching position and stood to his full height, towering over the drawings and Natasha alike. He drew a deep breath that filled his massive chest before he turned and looked back down at Natasha. 

Finally he gave a nod. 

Natasha stared up at him for a long moment. In her ear, Steve was giving the location in the park where they were meeting back up, but she barely heard the instructions. Hulk remembered. He had no reason to lie about it. Whether he remembered _everything_ was a different story, but if she had to guess, she’d say his memory of those six weeks were similar to Bruce’s: parts of it like they had actually happened ages ago, and parts of it crystal clear. 

She brought herself out of her thoughts and carefully reached her hand forward. Before she touched his hand, she glanced up at his face to ensure the touch would be welcome. Hulk was watching her, but he carefully closed the distance between their hands. 

Natasha felt a small smile tug at her lips and she let her hand slip against his palm. It would be as close to holding hands as they could get with the impossible size difference in their hands. “We need to join the others,” she explained as she took a step, and Hulk followed obediently along.

They walked together down the park, and Natasha almost swore she was dreaming. But the palm against her fingers was warm and rough and very, very real. They walked in silence for a little while, enjoying the view of the trees and everything that wasn’t damaged by the battle, but Natasha kept thinking.

“How much do you remember, Hulk?” Natasha asked as they rounded an impressive fountain. 

A grunt escaped from the behemoth next to her, but it wasn’t an angry noise. Instead, it sounded almost thoughtful. “Hulk remember,” he replied in a low, rumbling voice. “Remember anger.” His voice took on an edge of remorse and regret. “Remember smash.” 

He paused, and Natasha was forced to stop. She looked up at him and found him watching the fountain, and a smile touched his normally enraged features. “Remember fun,” he added, no doubt thinking about his time at the beach in Malibu. “Remember Tony. Remember Pepper. Remember…” he trailed off, like he couldn’t think of the word he needed. 

Instead of speaking, Hulk laid his free hand against his massive chest. He looked back down at Natasha. “Remember warm,” he said. The smile on his face was so tranquil, so serene and peaceful. “Happy warm.” 

_Love,_ Natasha thought. That was the word that Hulk couldn’t remember, the feeling he couldn’t describe. Despite her expression not changing, she felt something in her chest ache at the thought. 

As they started walking again, Natasha smiled up at him. “Happy memories, then?” she asked.

“Happy,” Hulk confirmed. “Hulk like happy memories.”

The turned onto a new path and saw the other four Avengers meeting up. 

Before they reached the rest of their team, however, Hulk glanced back down at Natasha. “But Hulk not like being little.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **rsfcommonplace requested: Gosh, I don’t know what to ask for first. Tony and Pepper a year or so down the road, showing off the baby, perhaps? Or Bruce getting curious enough to ask JARVIS if there are any recordings of little him that he can watch, and somehow the others wind up showing off all their pictures – including Tony showing the pictures of little Hulk on the beach… Or even the AU where they can’t fix it, so Tony and Pepper adopt Bruce formally, so he never has to worry about being taken away.**
> 
> I went ahead with your second prompt, since I got a few others that were requesting the other two.

It started with Steve’s sketchbook. 

Bruce had been woken up from a nightmare—they had plagued him since he had been returned to himself a month and a half ago—and knew he wouldn’t be falling back asleep that night, so he had gotten up. He had gone to the communal floor, which was eerily silent at such an early hour in the morning. 

The coffee table was littered with take-out containers and half-empty bottles of beer and cups of coffee. 

Bruce felt himself sigh with relief. A menial task was just what he needed to get his mind off of the lingering images from his dreams. He gathered up the containers and began to tidy up the area, focusing on that and only that. It was busy work, but it was definitely welcome. 

The empty containers went into the trash, leftovers were labeled and stashed into the refrigerator, and the remains of the drinks were dumped down the sink. The beer bottles and cups alike were rinsed, the former set aside for recycling and the latter properly cleaned with soapy water and individually dried. 

He dried off his hands and returned to the living room, where he started to gather the pages of a scattered newspaper. 

As he reached to pick up the sports section, he knocked something to the floor. When Bruce looked, he saw the professional doodles on the page, and he realized it was Steve’s sketchbook.

He reached down to pick it up, but he immediately froze when he actually saw what the drawings were. The air left his lungs as he stared down at the images, and after another moment of staring, he dropped the newspaper he was holding and fumbled for his glasses. 

Slowly, reverently, he picked up Steve’s sketchbook and stared down at the page at images of himself—images of himself as a _child._ Memories of that day came flooding back to him, and he remembered sitting on that bench in the park, happily feeding pigeons next to Steve as the soldier had drawn. 

He remembered having seen the drawings when he was four, but looking at them now sent… _something_ through Bruce’s chest. The boy on the page looked so serene, an expression he could never remember seeing on his own face at that age from his real childhood.

Bruce sank down onto the sofa and contemplated turning the page to continue looking, but shame suddenly washed over him. He quickly closed the sketchpad and set it down on the coffee table, out of reach. Still, he stared at it for a moment longer before he sighed and pulled off his glasses to rub at his tired eyes.

These memories…These memories from that second chance at a childhood… It was bizarre to think back on, but he _treasured_ those moments that he could remember. Despite his shame in infringing upon Steve’s privacy, he was so _thankful_ that he had that refreshed memory. 

He knew the others had pictures on their phones. He _wanted_ to see them, but he just wasn’t ready to have the kinds of discussions that would likely follow. He was still coming to terms with everything that had happened, and he still felt the sting of guilt go through him when he happened to catch Tony looking at one of the many mementos that had marked his short stint into fatherhood.

No matter how many times everyone tried to reassure him, Bruce knew that they had loved the little boy he had become.

He often wondered if it would have been better if he had stayed like that. 

Bruce shook off that mindset and glanced back at the sketchpad on the coffee table. He bit his lip and fiddled with his glasses, and then perked up as a thought occurred to him. There _was_ someone he could ask for evidence of that time period who wouldn’t want to _talk_ about it.

“JARVIS,” Bruce began softly.

_“Yes sir?”_ the AI immediately replied.

Bruce glanced down at his glasses and he twirled them between his fingers, hesitating for a long moment. His eyes then went over to the sketchbook again.

Curiosity had always been a weakness of his.

“Do you…have any pictures or videos or…um, _anything_ from my time as a…” He swallowed. “…as a child?”

JARVIS’s response was instantaneous. _“I do, doctor.”_

A holographic screen appeared in front of Bruce’s eyes, and he quickly slipped his glasses back on to see what JARVIS had displayed for him. “What…?”

_“That top folder is the collection of images from Mr. Stark’s phone,”_ the AI explained. _“I am absolutely certain he would have no qualms with you viewing them. The next file contains a few video segments Mr. Stark had me collect over the duration of your transformation. You are more than welcome to peruse the provided information.”_

Bruce stared at the screen, eyes wide behind his glasses. He hadn’t expected everything to be laid out so neatly before him. 

He knew he didn’t have the fortitude to actually watch the videos yet—he didn’t know what he’d do if he heard children’s laughter just then—so he hesitantly opened up the file with the images.

The first picture immediately took Bruce back to his day at the zoo with Tony, and a breathless laugh escaped from him. 

==

The rest of the team found Bruce the following morning asleep on the sofa, his glasses resting precariously on the edge of his nose and the holographic screen still displaying images of his time as a four year old. 

The next time Bruce checked JARVIS’s collection of images, there were more folders, all labeled after what each of his teammates had to share.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: I know that you had a conversation between Tony and Bruce after he changed back to being a grown up (and it was perfection too) but I would love another conversation between them where what happened comes up again. I would love to see how the whole thing changed their friendship when Bruce was grown again.**

The elevator doors opened to the penthouse, and Tony stepped out with Bruce, still talking a mile a minute. “I’m just saying,” the engineer said fervently, “there was no reason for me to be in that meeting.”

“You mean aside from it being a meeting with each of the different R&D project heads?” Bruce asked with a knowing little smile on his face.

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” Tony complained good-naturedly as he stripped off his suit jacket and loosened his tie. “We could have gotten so much more done if I hadn’t been dragged to that _abysmal_ afternoon of meetings. And now we’re getting to dinner late.”

Bruce offered a little shrug. “Such is the life of the—”

He trailed off abruptly, and when Tony glanced over, he saw Bruce’s eyes locked on something across the room. When he looked, he felt something behind his arc reactor begin to ache.

Sitting on top of the bar was the stuffed rhino.

They both stared across the room at the toy, and Tony finally tore his eyes away from it to look at Bruce. The man’s expression was nostalgic, and there was something soft about the look that made Tony hesitate. 

“I didn’t know you still had it out,” Bruce breathed softly without looking away from the toy. 

It had been only a few weeks since the child had been returned to his fully-grown form, and there were still times that Tony ached with the loss. There were still little reminders everywhere Tony seemed to look and he would be hit with that familiar painful ache at any given time. 

He had forgotten he had left the child’s stuffed rhino out in the open. “I thought I had put that away,” Tony replied in a low voice, glancing briefly back at the toy before he turned his eyes to Bruce.

They hadn’t talked about what had happened to Bruce since those first few awkward and stilted conversations in the twenty-four hours after the boy had been transformed back into Dr. Banner’s full-grown form. Tony knew he was still working through everything that had happened to him, sorting through all of the memories he had from that six week span when he had been a four year old again. 

Bruce peered over at Tony, and Tony tried not to squirm under the intense stare from his friend. Despite Bruce’s expression being almost achingly open, Tony couldn’t get a read on the man. 

“It’s okay to miss it,” Bruce said after a moment of staring, his voice soft. As Tony swallowed painfully, Bruce’s gaze drifted off to something else in the room. “I know you loved…”

Tony could almost hear Bruce’s internal struggle between _him_ and _me_ as he trailed off. 

Before Tony could even think of some kind of response, Bruce’s eyes returned to him and a small smile touched his features. “I… There’s a part of me that misses it, too,” he admitted quietly. “There’s a part of me that…wouldn’t have minded if I had stayed like that…to have gotten a second chance with you and Pepper.”

“…we were prepared for it,” Tony replied in a tight voice. He looked away, suddenly unable to meet Bruce’s deep brown eyes. They reminded him too much of the little boy’s. “Nothing I was doing in the lab was working, and…and I genuinely thought we wouldn’t get you back.”

His eyes shot back to Bruce’s. “I wasn’t going to stop working,” he said fervently. He glanced over at the stuffed rhino. “It’s just that _nothing_ was working, and—”

“And failure when the stakes are so high is _hard_ ,” Bruce cut in gently. When Tony’s eyes met his again, a small, almost bitter smile appeared on Bruce’s face. “Believe me, I know.”

A lingering silence passed between them as they both looked away from each other. Tony found his eyes returning to the stuffed rhino, still sitting atop the bar. 

“I remember getting that, you know,” Bruce broke the hush a few moments later. There was a much more genuine smile touching Bruce’s features when Tony glanced at him, and Bruce’s eyes were warm with fond remembrance as he stared at the stuffed animal. “That day at the zoo was so special.”

“You really seemed like you enjoyed yourself,” Tony replied, feeling a tender smile of his own spread across his face. 

“I remember enjoying myself a great deal during that time,” Bruce said. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so…so safe. So safe or _loved._ ” 

Bruce peered back over at Tony, his expression open again, and Tony felt his breath hitch. “I’m sorry if I’ve been overprotective,” Tony said softly, “since you’ve come back. There are times I feel like I might be a little overbearing, but…yeah.”

The physicist smiled again. “You haven’t been overbearing,” he said reassuringly. “It’s…actually kind of nice to have someone looking out for me. Besides,” he went on, his smiling widening into a grin, “with you being so overprotective of me, it’s gotten some of your odd habits in line.”

“Odd habits?” Tony repeated, feeling himself begin to grin.

Bruce gave an innocent little shrug. “You are hell-bent and determined to make sure I eat during the day,” he explained, “and so your eating habits have started to improve, too. Same thing with your sleep schedule.”

That grin overtook Tony’s face. “I didn’t know you cared,” he teased, still feeling touched.

Bruce’s own grin softened into something softer. “It goes both ways,” he replied softly.

Warmth flooded through Tony’s chest, and he smiled.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: Please another cooking session scene with little Bruce/Avenger(s) of choice?**
> 
> I realized the cooking scenes between Bruce and Pepper are tragically missing from Sprout, so enjoy a Bruce and Pepper scene!

“How would you like to help me make something?” Pepper asked, and Bruce immediately perked up.

“What are we making?” the four year old asked eagerly, already jumping down from his spot on the sofa and putting his book down.

Pepper smiled.

It was Tony’s birthday, and Pepper had convinced Rhodey to take a vacation day and fly to the tower. The four of them had had breakfast together, and just like she knew he would, Tony dragged his best friend down to the workshop so they could do some work on their suits. 

It gave Pepper the perfect opportunity to get some baking done with Bruce.

She led the little boy into the kitchen, where she already had the needed ingredients laid out and ready for use. “Tony really likes oatmeal chocolate chip cookies,” she disclosed as she moved the stepping stool over to the kitchen sink so Bruce could wash his hands. “I thought we could make him some as a special birthday treat.”

“He’d love that,” Bruce replied with a bright grin. “How can I help?”

Pepper let Bruce measure out the brown and white sugars while she unwrapped the paper from the needed sticks of butter. The three ingredients went into the mixing bowl, and Pepper mixed them all together. 

While Pepper went to the refrigerator to pull out the eggs, Bruce carefully stirred the vanilla into the mixture. “Have you cracked eggs before, Bruce?” Pepper asked as she set the carton down on the counter next to their workspace. She took a quick detour over to the oven and set the temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The boy shook his head. “Steve showed me when we made breakfast together once, but I didn’t want to mess up the food, so I just watched.” 

“I’ll show you,” Pepper said. She picked up the first egg and held it aloft between her thumb and two fingers. “All you need to do is be gentle so you don’t break the whole thing, then you tap it against the bowl like this.”

She firmly tapped the widest part of the egg against the mixing bowl, and the shell neatly broke. With Bruce watching closely, Pepper carefully pulled the two halves of the eggshell apart and neatly deposited the egg yolk and whites into the mixture. “The key is to make sure you don’t accidentally drop pieces of eggshell into the dough,” she said as she tossed the shells into the trash. “Would you like to try?”

Bruce nodded, and Pepper handed him an egg. He held it delicately and mimicked how she had held it. 

He lightly tapped it against the bowl, but the shell didn’t crack.

“Try again,” Pepper instructed gently, “just a little harder.”

With a look of concentration, Bruce rapped the egg against the bowl again. This time, it cracked neatly. A surprised smile crossed the boy’s face, but it faded into a look of determination as he gently pulled the halves apart. The yolk and egg whites landed in the dough, and no little bits of egg shell accompanied it.

“I did it!” Bruce said with a delighted smile.

“Very good,” Pepper praised softly. “We need two more eggs, if you’d like to take care of that.”

As Bruce carefully added the final two eggs, Pepper went about measuring the flour, baking soda, and salt. Pepper mixed the eggs into the dough, and then Bruce carefully added little portions of the powered ingredients to the bowl as Pepper kept mixing everything together.

Finally, they measured out the oats and chocolate chips and mixed the dough together one last time. The oven beeped to signal that the preheated temperature had been reached.

They worked together to scoop the raw cookie dough onto the cookie sheets in heaping spoonfuls. 

“They’re pretty lumpy,” Bruce commented as he watched Pepper put the last little ball of cookie dough onto the second sheet.

“That’s just the oats,” Pepper reassured him. 

Both cookie sheets went into the oven, and Pepper set the timer.

Twelve minutes later, she pulled the sheets out and set them down on the stovetop. The scent of the fresh baked cookies wafted through the air, making the kitchen smell like heaven. The cookies cooled for five minutes on the baking sheets before they were transferred over to a wire rack to cool completely.

After the next batch of cookies was put into the oven and the timer was counting down the next twelve minutes, Pepper picked up one of the cooled cookies. Once she had deemed it cool enough, she handed it over to Bruce. “What do you think?” she asked with a smile.

Bruce carefully took the treat from Pepper and broke off a piece. He popped it into his mouth and chewed, and Pepper’s smile widened when she saw the delight appear on his face. 

“Wow,” the boy said after he had swallowed. “That’s really good.”

“They’re Tony’s favorite,” Pepper said as she snagged a cookie for herself.

==

They were just transferring the last batch of cookies to the wire rack when they heard the elevator doors open. Pepper heard the conversation come to a dead halt, and she shared a smile with Bruce.

A moment later, Tony and Rhodey rounded the corner into the kitchen. Rhodey was smiling to himself as Tony’s eyes scanned the counters. “Are those what I think they are?” Tony asked, looking between Pepper and Bruce.

“Why don’t you try one?” Pepper replied as she picked up one of the cooled cookies.

Tony bit into it and practically groaned, prompting a little giggle from the little boy on the stepping stool beside Pepper. “I love you both,” he said reverently around his mouthful of cookie. “Like, I seriously love you both. C’mere.” He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Pepper and Bruce. “Thank you.”

“Happy birthday,” Bruce said quietly.

When Tony drew back, he had two more cookies in his hands. He danced away from Pepper with a grin on his face and his snagged treasures still in hand.

“Don’t ruin your appetite,” she scolded only half-heartedly. “We’re supposed to be at the restaurant in two hours.”

“Nothing can be ruined with these little pieces of heaven,” Tony replied as he handed Rhodey one of his pilfered treats. He smiled at Pepper and Bruce again. “You guys made them perfectly,” he said before he took another bite. “Perfectly.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Delinquentdean requested: I love your Sprout fanfic and super excited to see more! So prompt: a post-sprout, a moment between Bruce and JARVIS if you can and the bots too if possible, like they have a talk and all about his time being little and stuff; Bruce and JARVIS plz**

With a sharp gasp, Bruce shot awake. 

His wide eyes shot around his environment as he tried to catch his breath. There was perspiration on his brow and a tremble running through his body, and he vaguely wondered if his eyes had taken on a green hue. When he finally recognized where he was, he remembered that he had fallen asleep on the sofa in the corner of the laboratory. The lights were dim, and the hum of equipment and machinery was a comforting distraction.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when something pinched the fabric of his shirt. Before he could scramble away from the unexpected touch, a soft mechanical whirr sounded, and Bruce twisted his head.

DUM-E was hovering beside him, making these tiny whirring sounds that Bruce swore sounded almost worried. 

Bruce lifted a shaky hand and let it rest upon the claw that was still pinching the fabric covering his chest. 

_“Are you alright, doctor?”_ JARVIS’s voice came.

After forcing himself to attempt to take a deep breath, Bruce nodded. “I’m fine,” he managed in a tiny voice. He closed his eyes, but the second he did, flashes of his nightmare appeared, and he blinked his eyes open with a sharp breath.

_“I can call Mr. Stark, if you would like,”_ the AI offered gently as DUM-E whirred in concern again.

“D-Don’t,” Bruce stammered. He sat up, forcing the claw against his chest to lift. His socked feet hit the cold tiled floor and he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “I’m fine,” he said again as he shoved his face into his hands. “I’m just fine…”

JARVIS remained quiet as DUM-E chittered quietly, the robot’s claw opening and closing in open air like it didn’t know what to do.

Bruce took the moment of quiet to focus on calming his beating heart and slow his rapid breathing. It was just a dream. Just a really, _really_ unpleasant dream.

He jumped again when he felt something drape over his shoulders. His head jerked up from his hands to the sight of U laying a blanket over his shoulders with such care. 

U finished draping the blanket over him, and then both bots went about straightening the blanket. Bruce could do nothing more than watch, trying to swallow the tightness that had suddenly made itself known in his throat.

When DUM-E and U finished, they laid their claws in Bruce’s lap, and Bruce sighed fondly and let his shaky hands stroke along the metal that made up their claws. “Thanks,” he said softly, and both bots chittered happily.

_“Are you alright, Dr. Banner?”_ JARVIS asked again, softer.

Bruce breathed out a long shuddering exhale and leaned back a little against the sofa. “Yeah,” he replied in a low mumble. He paused for a moment, replaying the AI’s earlier words in his mind. 

Memories from what felt like his childhood—decades ago—came back to him, but logically he knew they were from only a few weeks ago. He remembered how often Tony had come to him in the wake of horrible nightmares, when he had been struggling to stay quiet and keep his tears and pain to himself, and how Tony had comforted him. It hadn’t mattered how late at night it was; Tony had come to him for the really bad ones.

“JARVIS,” Bruce began, still lost in the memories of that friendly father figure soothing him as a child.

_“Yes, doctor?”_ the AI replied.

Bruce took a moment to breathe, and he focused on DUM-E and U, still happily chittering under the attention of his soft pets. “You alerted Tony when…” He swallowed and tried again. “You let Tony know when I had a nightmare, when I was changed.”

_“I did, sir,”_ JARVIS affirmed. _“You had a great many nightmares during your time as a child. It was painful to watch you suffer alone through them. Mr. Stark felt the same way.”_

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Bruce apologized quietly.

_“You have nothing to apologize for, Dr. Banner,”_ the AI replied. _“I am sorry that you experienced such dreadful dreams, and I am sorry that you did not feel like were deserving of comfort. It was a great relief to see you finally accept it and allow yourself to be comforted and loved.”_

Bruce felt his mouth go dry. He nibbled on his bottom lip and glanced off, away from the two bots that had just comforted him in the wake of his nightmare. He remembered how foreign it had been back then. No one comforted him after his nightmares back then, not even his mother. He could never go to her after a bad dream, not with his father lying on the other side of the mattress. 

He was so used to suffering through them alone. He had never disturbed his aunt with them after he had gone to live with her. Betty never saw the worst of them, which was for the best. All his life, he had just moved on, trying not to let the pain drag him down, trying to forgo comfort and just dealing with it. 

To have people suddenly offer everything—security, comfort, acceptance, _love_ —was new, and frankly it was intimidating. Those first few times Tony had come to him as a child, he had tried not to get used to it. It wasn’t going to last, so best not to get accustomed to it. It would make everything hurt less when those offers stopped.

Only now, Bruce realized, it _hadn’t_ stopped. It hadn’t stopped when he had been a child, and it hadn’t stopped even after he had been changed back to himself. Here he was, startled awake from a nightmare, being comforted by Tony’s robots and AI. 

That tightness in his throat thickened, and he swallowed painfully. His chest swam with emotions, and it took a moment to reign it all in.

“I…” Bruce glanced back down at DUM-E and U, and he gently pressed his palms against the warm metal under his hands. They both whirred with affection and delight. “It’s taking some getting use to,” he admitted quietly. “It’s…it’s all still pretty new.”

_“It seemed the best way for the concept to sink in for your younger self was through repeated exposure,”_ JARVIS disclosed. _“Luckily, there is no shortage of people here who care for you, myself included.”_

Bruce felt himself smile, and he swallowed thickly as he blinked back the wetness in his eyes.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: I'd love another scene please of little Bruce and Avenger of your choice making something (crafty/artsy) together!**

“Did you find something?” Steve asked, and Bruce glanced up at him with a smile. 

They were in a nearby arts and crafts store. They had been planning on spending their afternoon together in the park, but by the time they had left the tower and started their walk to the park, the clouds were building up. A quick look up at the front of the store confirmed that it was still only sprinkling, but given how heavy the clouds looked, they were due for a good soaking rain pretty soon.

Since they would be stuck inside for the rest of the day, they had stopped in here to find something to do with the rest of their day.

“This could be cool,” the little boy said, pointing at one of the kits standing on the shelf. 

Steve looked at the front of the box. It was a kit for sand art. It looked like it came with a few oddly shaped plastic pieces that different colored sands would go into, along with two small funnels, stoppers for the plastic to hold the sand in, a few little sticks to do touch work with the sand, and stickers.

“Sounds good to me,” the soldier replied, plucking two from the shelf.

They managed to beat the rain just in time, for once they had stepped off of the elevator and onto the penthouse level, they could hear the rain hitting the windows.

Steve got everything set up on the table. Each of the little plastic containers were lined up along the table, and each packet of sand was laid out. A quick look at the stickers showed that they were mostly kid-friendly things, like shooting stars, dragons, and flowers. There were also stickers of eyes and mouths, which had made Bruce grin.

“Have you ever done this sort of thing before?” the little boy asked as he reached for one of the more oddly shaped pieces of plastic. It had a base to support the odd structure, and the plastic moved in little zig-zags. It almost reminded Steve of a crooked cactus.

“I can’t say I have,” Steve replied as he picked up a different plastic piece. It was a tall, narrow structure. “I didn’t have a lot of this sort of thing growing up,” he admitted. 

“Me neither,” Bruce said as he reached for the red sand and a funnel. 

Steve watched the child work for a moment before he got to work on his. He plucked up the purple and green sand and began to pour the purple sand into the plastic container. Once they had about a quarter of an inch of the purple, he reached for the green and added a small layer of that color atop the purple. 

After setting aside the green sand, Steve reached over and picked up one of the little sticks. From the corner of his eye, he saw Bruce glance over to watch. The soldier carefully inserted the stick into the plastic container and slid the pointed end along the inside of the plastic until it reached the sand. He pressed carefully, and the green sand flowed into the indent the stick created until there was a small point of green reaching into the purple sand.

“Whoa,” the four year old breathed, leaning forward to watch Steve make another pointed pattern in the sand. “That’s so cool.”

“It’s really easy to do,” Steve said, turning a smile over at the boy. “Would you like to try on mine?”

“I don’t want to ruin it,” Bruce said, drawing back a little. 

“You won’t,” Steve replied reassuringly. He carefully drew the stick out of the plastic and offered it to the child. 

Bruce looked at the stick hesitantly, but when he met Steve’s kind eyes, he carefully took the stick from Steve. 

Steve moved his project into Bruce’s workspace, careful not to jostle the loose sand. “All you have to do is press the stick into the sand a little, and that top layer of sand will flow into that space.”

The little boy nodded and he carefully put the stick into the plastic container. Following Steve’s pattern, he pressed a small part of the stick into the sand, and he grinned wide when he had a neat little green point left behind. 

“See?” Steve said encouragingly, pointing to the next little space where he was going to add another point. “Nothing to it.”

“Are you sure you haven’t done this before?” Bruce asked with a smile as he obligingly made another point in the sand. 

Steve smiled. “I promise,” he replied.

They both returned to their own projects, and Steve smiled to himself to see Bruce using the other stick provided from the kit to manipulate the sand in his plastic container.

Not too long later, as Steve was adding the finishing touches to his before putting the cap on, he saw Bruce reach for the stickers. 

Steve glanced over and watched Bruce peel off two of the eyes and one of the mouths and attach it to his artwork. He bit back a smile when he saw the final product.

Bruce grinned brightly and he sat back to look over his completed masterpiece. “What do you think, Steve?” he asked, beaming over at the man next to him.

The sand art creation was without a doubt a re-imagining of Iron Man. A majority of the thing was red and yellow, and Steve saw that the little dips in the color were actually in the general area of where the different plates of armor came together. There was a white spot toward where the chest would be, no doubt the arc reactor. The addition of the sticker eyes and mouth, combined with the general oddness of the plastic housing unit, gave the whole thing a goofy aura. 

Steve grinned. “A gift for Tony?” he asked.

Bruce nodded enthusiastically. 

“I’m sure he’ll love it,” the soldier replied. He finished his and put the cap on. “Here,” he said, sliding his completed piece to Bruce. “This is for you.”

The boy’s eyes widened and he looked closely at the finished sand art. It was mostly just a tower of alternating layers of green and purple, but each layer had a pattern of spikes pointing down into the layer below. 

“It’s beautiful,” Bruce breathed wondrously. “Thank you.” He looked away to smile radiantly over at Steve. “Thank you so much!”

Steve smiled and pulled the boy into a loving embrace. “You are very welcome,” he replied quietly. 

They broke apart after another moment and got back to work, making various little sand art gifts for the rest of their friends.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Delinquentdean requested: Hi is it okay for one more prompt? You had this line in chap 39 "...if it took moments like these to cement the notions..." so about a post-sprout with each avenger in their own way show Bruce that he is wanted**

“How about this one?” Thor asked, holding up another book for Bruce to look at.

They were standing in a book store not too far from the tower, browsing through anthologies and collections of short stories. Thor had asked the doctor to accompany him on this trip, and Bruce had agreed. 

Bruce glanced up from the tome in his hands and pressed his glasses a little further up his nose to look at the book in Thor’s grasp. “I can’t say I’ve read those,” he admitted quietly.

The Asgardian put the book back on the shelf and continued browsing for anything that caught his eye. In his peripheral, he saw Bruce watch him uncertainly before he went back to browsing on his own.

A few minutes later, Thor looked up from a different book at the small sound of triumph Bruce made. “Here it is,” the doctor announced, pulling a book down from the shelf. It was a thick book, one that would surely keep the demigod occupied for some time.

Bruce handed Thor the book, and Thor grinned. _The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson_ was written proudly across the cover. “Thank you, friend,” Thor said, clapping a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “I thoroughly enjoyed _Treasure Island._ This will surely be just as good.”

Bruce shrugged a little at the thanks and pulled his glasses off. “JARVIS probably could have found this for you a lot faster,” he demurred quietly, “along with a _lot_ more other recommendations.”

“I know how well-read you are, Bruce,” Thor replied. “I value your thoughts, and I know you would not recommend something that you yourself did not enjoy thoroughly. I want to read more of what this realm has to offer, and I would like to have discussions with you on them, if you are willing.”

Bruce stared at him for a long moment, like he had no idea how to respond.

Thor spared him the trouble of thinking up a response. He grinned brightly, clapped Bruce once more upon the shoulder, and moved off toward the registers. 

==

“Hey doc, do you need any—” 

The rest of Clint’s question died on his lips as Bruce jumped and accidentally sliced his finger. 

Bruce drew a hissing inhale and cursed under his breath. The man immediately dropped the knife he had been using to cut vegetables, cupped his uninjured hand around his bleeding finger, and twisted to the sink. 

Clint ducked and opened the cabinet door under the sink and pulled out the first aid kit. He drew on the heavy-duty gloves meant to deal with radioactive and hazardous materials and grabbed a few cotton balls. “Are you okay?” he asked worriedly, handing Bruce the cotton balls.

“I’m fine,” Bruce replied in a distracted tone, accepting the cotton balls only once he had ensured Clint was wearing protective gloves. “I’m not gonna Hulk-out. I’m okay.”

Clint watched him dab at his already-healing wound. “I’m not worried about you Hulking out, man,” he replied. “You sliced your finger open, and those hurt. You okay?”

After a beat, Bruce glanced at him, looking vaguely confused. “Yeah,” Bruce answered softly in a curious tone, like Clint’s concern was misplaced. “I, um…I’m fine.” He carefully pulled the ball of cotton away from his finger, and the cut was completely healed. He bent his finger to test the newly healed skin. “I’m fine,” he repeated softly.

When his eyes met Clint’s again, there was a softly wondrous glint to his eyes, and it made something in Clint’s chest hurt. “Thank you,” Bruce said softly in quiet gratitude.

Clint smiled and lightly squeezed Bruce’s shoulder. “I was going to ask if you needed any help,” he said.

“Oh,” Bruce said, turning and glancing back at the cutting board. “Let me get rid of anything that might have been contaminated, and then you can help, if you’d like.”

==

“You want me to _what?”_ Bruce asked. 

A few feet away, Natasha didn’t change her stance in front of him. “You heard me,” she replied with a small smile.

They were standing in the underground gymnasium on the mats. Natasha had somehow convinced him into coming down with her, but now that she was standing off in front of him, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Bruce said in a tiny voice, his fingers fiddling with one another since he didn’t have his glasses to play with. 

Natasha wanted to rush at him, to _make_ him interact with her like she would have done with Clint or Steve, but she knew that wouldn’t have worked with Bruce. 

She loosened her stance fractionally, but didn’t stand down. “I want to make sure you know how to protect yourself,” she explained. “I know you trained with a master during your time in Brazil—”

“For purposes of controlling Hulk,” Bruce cut in fervently. “It was breathing techniques and—”

“I need to know you can protect yourself,” Natasha interrupted as she broke her stance, making Bruce instantly fall silent. She watched him closely, how he was standing rigidly and how his fingers had stopped their twitchy movements. “I want to know you can keep yourself safe if Hulk can’t.”

She remembered that day she, Clint, and Steve had come down to the gym with the little boy for a self-defense lesson, and how hesitant the child had been to learn. She knew that Bruce wasn’t violent by nature, but she needed to know he could stay safe on his own if he ever found himself in a situation where Hulk or any of the rest of the team couldn’t protect him.

Bruce stared back at her, surprise written upon his face. Natasha really hoped it wasn’t her concern that surprised him.

Another moment later, the rigidity of Bruce’s posture loosened and his hands went to his sides. He pulled in a long breath and let the air out in one long exhale. “Okay,” he said softly.

Natasha smiled and slipped seamlessly back into a battle stance.

==

By the time Steve found the crater, Hulk had already transformed back into Bruce. The man was just waking up, no doubt roused from the droplets of rain hitting his face. 

As Steve was sliding down the slope into the crater, he saw the pain register on Bruce’s face, and Steve sprinted over to where the man was lying.

Their enemy had had some kind of weapon that shot rays of some kind of energy. Steve’s left arm had taken a hit, and it had burned straight through his uniform to burn into his skin. His super-healing abilities had certainly come in handy this mission, and his arm was nearly back to normal. 

Hulk had taken a brutal hit toward the end of the fight when the weapon had malfunctioned and exploded. Medics were working on keeping their enemy alive, but Steve had run off to find Hulk in the aftermath of their rainy battle.

Steve sank down to his knees and helped Bruce sit up, hissing in sympathy when he saw the awful burns across his back. Bruce was breathing through the pain, his jaw clamped tight and his eyes slammed shut.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Steve said reassuringly as he sat down next to Bruce in the rubble of the crater. He gently pulled the man until he was leaning against him. He pulled his shield off his back and held it above their heads to keep the rain from hitting Bruce’s burnt back. 

His left hand found one of Bruce’s, and he let their hands come together.

Bruce blinked his eyes open and he glanced almost deliriously down at their hands. “Wha…?” he asked softly.

“I know you’re hurting,” Steve explained calmly. “Squeeze if you need to. We can wait until your back is healed up before we get out of this crater.”

Bruce glanced sluggishly around the crater before his eyes returned to their hands. “You don’ have to…” he murmured, shifting just a little and wincing with a sharp breath.

“I want to,” Steve replied. “I’m not going to let you suffer through this alone, Bruce. Just relax. I’ve got you.”

A moment passed in which neither of them spoke. There was something on the man’s face that made something in his chest twinge in sympathy. 

Forcing himself to look away from that heartbreaking expression, Steve stole a quick look at the man’s back and saw it was already beginning to heal. Thank goodness for super-human healing.

His eyes returned to Bruce’s face when the man slumped a little more against the soldier. Bruce squeezed Steve’s hand against the pain, and once he was settled, Bruce breathed out a tiny puff of relief. “Thanks,” he whispered.

Steve smiled and gave Bruce’s hand a light squeeze in return. 

They settled together, listening to the rain ping off of Steve’s shield.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> **Anonymous requested: Grown up Bruce goes into the room where he stayed while he was little after it's been a few months and discovers that nothing in the room has changed at all. I'd love it if either Tony (especially Tony) or Pepper (or maybe both) come in at some point and they talk about Bruce's time as a little boy again.**

“Make yourself comfortable,” Tony said as he walked toward the hall that led to his bedroom—and more importantly, his shower. “Pepper will _kill_ me if I go out looking like this,” he grumped as he gestured at the grease, sweat, and motor oil covering his arms and face.

“She wouldn’t kill you,” Bruce demurred as he slipped his hands into his pockets, smiling disarmingly at his friend. 

“You’d be surprised,” Tony shot back. He grinned when a huff of laughter escaped from Bruce. “I’ll be back soon.”

And with that, Bruce was left standing alone in the penthouse living room. 

It had been a while since he had been in this room by himself. The last time had been months ago, during that period of time when he had been transformed into his four year old self. He glanced out of the floor-to-ceiling windows and smiled faintly at the familiar view. 

The sound of the shower being turned on made Bruce glance in the direction of the hall Tony had disappeared down. His eyes drifted toward the other side of the hall, one that had become well-traversed during his time as a boy here. 

Bruce slowly approached the opening of the hall and, with one fleeting glance toward the master bedroom, he wandered toward the other end of the hall. He passed the guest suite he had stayed in originally, before Hulk had destroyed it in his grief-stricken rage. A small pang of guilt went through him at the memory of the destruction, and he pushed the door open. 

The room was restored back to what it had been, pristine and lacking any piece of evidence that it had seen Hulk’s wrath. 

Bruce stood in the opening of the suite for a moment before he pulled the door shut and continued his trek down to the other room at the end of the hall. 

Curious, he pushed open the door.

He immediately felt like he had gone back in time, and his eyes widened.

The room was _exactly_ the same as it had been the last time he saw it, months and months ago when he had been a boy. The SHIELD blanket Tony had given to him that very first day on the helicarrier was folded neatly at the end of the bed. There was a small collection of dinosaur toys sitting on dresser, right next to a tiny children’s baseball cap with the Bronx Zoo logo across the front. 

Before he knew he was moving, Bruce was standing in front of the dresser, running his fingers carefully along the marine animals around the zoo logo on the hat. He was taken back to that moment when he had felt such gratitude for the wonderful and unexpected gift. 

His attention was drawn to the dinosaur toys next, and he felt himself smile at the memory of Natasha joining in their game of make believe. It had been the first time he had really ever played like that, and he cherished the memory.

Swept up in dozens of different memories and emotions, Bruce turned and looked around the room. The nightlight he and Tony had made was still nestled into the wall outlet, powered off. There were the little shoes resting next to the closet, only mildly scuffed from use. There was the little footstool he had needed to use to crawl up into bed. There was a paperback novel resting on the nightstand. Atop the book was a tiny pair of glasses. 

His stuffed rhino—another treasured gift from the zoo—was resting on the bed.

Bruce was still staring at the toy when he realized he wasn’t alone.

When he turned, he found Tony standing in the doorway. He suddenly wondered how long he had been standing in here, lost in his memories.

Tony was staring at him, this open look on his face, which made Bruce nervous. He swallowed and glanced back around the room. “You kept everything…” he said softly, not an accusation, but an observation.

A small smile touched Tony’s lips, and Bruce saw that the other man had trimmed his goatee. How long had he been in here? The engineer pushed off of the doorway and stepped into the room, and Bruce wondered if this was as much of a trip back in time for Tony as it had been for him. 

“I didn’t have the heart to do anything with it,” Tony admitted after another moment. His eyes were on the nightlight, no doubt thinking about his time in the workshop with the little boy as they made it. “I didn’t know if you would want to…y’know, keep anything, and I didn’t know how to ask. So I just…” He gestured around the room instead of answering.

Bruce looked around the room, and once again, his eyes settled on the stuffed animal on the bed. With a start, he realized what the issue was.

They didn’t really talk about what had happened to him. It came up in conversation now and then, but generally, they didn’t talk about it. It was a difficult topic to broach on a good day, but that didn’t mean the memories were something Bruce looked back on with distaste. Bruce treasured the memories he had from that brief time period. 

Tony obviously did, too. To get rid of any of the little mementos would be one more thing to make it seem like those six weeks had never happened. 

“You should donate the clothes,” Bruce suggested softly. As Tony’s eyes shot to him, Bruce gestured over to the dresser. “I’m guessing everything’s still in there?” At the other man’s nod of confirmation, Bruce gave a nod of his own. “The clothes, shoes, and glasses would go a long way at a women’s shelter.”

Tony stared at him for a long moment, looking almost at a loss for words. “What about everything else?” he asked, a peculiar note of uncertainty in his voice.

Bruce looked around at the other little bits of his childhood: the hat, the nightlight, the dinosaur toys…

He reached over and picked up the stuffed rhino from where it had been sitting on the mattress. The fluff lining the toy’s body made him immediately smile in fond remembrance, feeling a soothing wave of nostalgia and comfort flow through him. 

“I think you should keep them,” Bruce said a moment later. He let his fingers move in a remembered pattern along the stuffed animal’s ears, and he saw Tony watching the movement. When Tony’s eyes lifted and met his, Bruce smiled. “I know you and Pepper have been talking about starting a family of your own sometime. I enjoyed all of the little gifts you, Pepper, and the rest of the team gave me during that time. I’d like to be able to offer that back to you and Pepper, when you do decide to have kids.”

Tony stared at him, clearly taken aback. A small, touched smile slowly appeared on his face. 

As Bruce smiled back, Tony cleared his throat and looked off toward the dresser again. “But not the clothes?” he asked in a teasing manner.

Bruce snorted a laugh. “No child of yours and Pepper’s will be caught dead wearing second-hand clothes.”

“Damn straight,” came Pepper’s voice.

Both men immediately turned and found Pepper standing in the doorway. She was watching Bruce, an unspeakably warm expression on her face. Bruce realized she had likely heard everything.

She stepped into the room and walked straight up to Bruce. Her eyes were fairly sparkling with affection, and she smiled. “We’ll have the clothes donated to the local women’s shelter,” she said. Her hands then came to a rest over his, where he was still holding the stuffed rhino. “But you keep this,” she said, gently pushing the toy toward Bruce’s chest. “You loved this toy, and it was a gift. We know how special it was to you.”

Bruce searched her face for a moment before he glanced over at Tony. 

Tony was watching them with this openly affectionate look on his face. “It’s yours, buddy,” he said.

A warm, thankful smile touched Bruce’s lips, and he carefully pulled Pepper into a loving embrace. A heartbeat later, Tony’s arms wrapped around them both. “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not currently taking prompts, but I am going to leave this series as incomplete, since I _know_ I'm going to be taking prompts for this 'verse again sometime soon.
> 
> So keep your prompts on hand and make sure you check in at [my tumblr](http://trumpeteer34.tumblr.com/) for announcements about the next Sprout Prompt Weekend. Thank you so much for reading!


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